Fate robs infants of their mothers

The two women who were buried alive under the collapsed wall and mud met a gruesome end, say eye witnesses.

Manjunath, one of the relatives and co-workers, told Deccan Herald that he was working on the other side of the building when the accident occurred. “I rushed to the spot as I heard a huge sound of wall collapsing followed by screams of people. By the time I arrived, the 3 ft wide and 15 ft deep passage between the cellar and loose earth was almost closed. Eye witnesses said the two were trapped beneath,” he recounted.

He said some of the workers on the site immediately took some iron rods and spades and started clearing the debris, hoping that the two women might be alive. He said that as they dug up some five feet, he found the first body. “It was of the younger woman Mangamma. It was a very gruesome sight. A foundation stone had hit her head which was almost cut open. Her back was broken and the body almost torn into two. Her left leg was broken,” he said.

By the time the first body was recovered, police and fire fighters rushed to the spot and retrieved the body of Rajakka, similarly crushed.

Rajakka and Mangamma were married to brothers and both are survived by children who are hardly one year old. Mareppa was the eldest of the three brothers. He was married to Rajakka. The couple had four children – three daughters and a son – Martemma, Nagamma, Tippesh and eight-month-old Bhoomika. Martemma, the eldest of their four children, is married to Ramu for two years now. The couple lived separately and were working at another construction site.

Mareppa's younger brother Basavaraj was married recently to Mangamma. The couple had two sons – Mahendra, 2, and a six-month-old baby boy. Sanna Mareppa, the youngest of the brothers,  said the family hailed from Gonabayi village near Rayadurga, Anantapur district in Andhra Pradesh. The family had migrated to the City four years ago, along with 70 people of the same village.

They have been living in tin sheds at Dananayakana Halli near Doddabasti.