JOIN USBegur police arrested the owner of the Jaihind International School in southeast Bengaluru’s Hongasandra, along with the school’s principal and coordinator for making a daily wager clean a manhole, leading to the labourer’s death on March 2.
On March 3, Sunday, the police arrested Raghavan, the owner the school, principal Saroja and coordinator Kishore Kumar. All three were produced before the magistrate on Monday. Saroja was granted bail, while Raghavan and Kumar were remanded to judicial custody.
Manu V, the deceased daily wager, lived in a rented house in Hongasandra with his wife Nandini and their four-year-old daughter. The couple married six years ago.
According to the police, manual scavenging is banned in the country. Despite the ban, the trio wanted Manu to clear the blockage in a manhole, and offered him money. The manhole is two feet wide and five feet deep. They forced him to work without providing him protective gear, the police said.
Manu slipped and fell inside the manhole while there was no one around to attend to him. He was trapped inside the manhole for some time, and eventually died. After a while, the school staff who approached the manhole raised an alarm. Manu was then brought out and rushed to the hospital, but was declared brought dead due to asphyxiation.
Manu’s wife Nandini filed a complaint at the Begur police station alleging Raghavan, Saroja and Kumar forced her husband to clear the blockage in the manhole without providing him any safety kit and sought action against them.
Police booked all the three accused under The Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013, and section 304 (A) of the IPC for causing death by negligence. They are investigating the case.