Four days on, metro worker's body still in deep freezer

Four days after a worker died at a metro site, his colleagues said the body remained in the freezer of St John’s hospital and that neither the contractor nor BMRCL officials had paid a visit.

Sameer Kantho Senapati, 24, from Cuttack, Odisha, died in a hospital shortly after a large iron beam from a support frame being dismantled fell on him near Veerasandra Junction, Electronics City, around 5.30 pm on November 7. Two other workers, Anil Jadhav and Endirabban, were grievously injured.

Amitabh Das, the brother-in-law of the deceased, has filed a police complaint against the BMRCL as well as ITD Cementation India Limited, the Thai company building the metro line between RV Road and Bommasandra in southern Bengaluru.

Das claimed that no BMRCL official or representative of the company had visited the hospital since the incident occurred. “We have been in the hospital for the past two days. The body is still in the freezer. There’s been no post-mortem,” Das told DH.

Senapati was the sole breadwinner of his family. His father is a heart patient while his mother is bedridden. His brother is a minor. “A man died and two people are battling for their lives, all because of the negligence of the company,” Das said.

BMRCL Managing Director Ajay Seth could not be reached for comment but a source in the corporation said the worker’s family was likely to get accidental death benefits from the contractor. The BMRCL would not pay anything. Representatives of ITD Cementation are arriving from Mumbai and will visit the hospital on Monday, the source added.