A 40-year-old worker was killed when her saree got stuck in the fan attached to a power tiller and her neck came under its blades as she was sucked into it, while working on separating rice from the chaff at a coffee plantation belonging to Karunakar at Bikalli village near here on Wednesday morning.
Manjula, from Babbagalale in Arkalgud taluk, was employed in the plantation, along with seven of her relatives, to pluck coffee berries. She was searching for the earring she had lost and on seeing a shining item in the heap of paddy, she thought it was her earring and bent to pick it up. The fan sliced away her neck and her head hit the nearby wall, while the body was thrown 10 feet away.
Manjula’s husband Ramesh, has in a complaint to the police, said the negligence on the part of the owner of the plantation and the operator of the tiller was responsible for his wife’s death. She is survived by Ramesh and two daughters.
Published 25 January 2012, 18:30 IST