JOIN USMan killed as rain brings down compound wall
A 51-year-old man was killed when the compound wall of the godown where he worked crashed down on his house here on Friday night.
The deceased is H T Mallesh, who was employed as a godown supervisor at Raj Gas Enterprises in Peenya Industrial Area since 1995.
A stormwater drain (SWD) runs just next to the godown’s compound wall that is almost 10 feet high. Further, BBMP had been widening the adjoining road since the past one-and-a- half months and workers had dumped the debris into the SWD.
Nagaraj, Mallesh’s co-worker at the agency and an eyewitness to the incident, said the wall collapsed around 8.30 pm, due to the pressure on it by the rainwater which had collected in the clogged SWD.
The godown and Mallesh’s house were damaged as the wall had fallen over them. About 40 minutes later, Mallesh’s wife Varalakshmi realised that he was missing. Shortly thereafter, his body was found floating in the rainwater that flooded his house.
He had been trapped inside the house as the wall fell on it. Mallesh was rushed to a nearby private hospital and later referred to M S Ramaiah Hospital where he was declared brought dead.
A native of Satyanahalli at Maddur in Mandya district, Mallesh was residing in the quarters of the godown company, along with his family.
Ex gratia
District in-charge minister Ramalinga Reddy and BBMP Commissioner Lakshminarayana visited the spot on Saturday morning. Muniraju, the local MLA, claimed that the SWD had been encroached upon and the civic agencies had allotted the land encroaching the SWD to individuals. Reddy said that even if the land was allotted by civic agencies, it was encroachment and that they would take steps to clear the same.
He met the victim’s family and announced an ex gratia of Rs one lakh. Captain B L Lingaraju, the owner of the gas agency, said that he had, in the last one month, lodged two protests against the BBMP contractor who had been blocking the SWD, but to no avail.
The Rajagopal Nagar police have registered a case of negligence against the contractor who built the compound wall, and the BBMP.