20 residents take ill at Prestige apartment

Around 20 residents, mostly children and the elderly, have taken ill after consuming contaminated water at the Prestige Ferns Residency Apartment on Haralur Road in Bellandur since April 4.

According to a resident, the victims who have taken ill are from the 10 to 17 floors of Tower-20, mostly children of age from one to 13.

All the victims complained of vomiting, diarrhoea and fever.

Tejas (2), Kreshav (1), Yella (7), Aditi (11), Naksha (4), Abhinav (11), Arjit (2), Pragya (2), Priyadarshan (13), Tanishq (9), Veer (9), Radhika (13), Aarav (6) and Suguna Gopinathan (55) were hospitalised.

“Initially we thought that it was a normal illness that occurs in every household. But several others on the same towers of different floors shared on apartment’s Whatsapp group, that their children were also complaining and suffering from the same symptoms,” said a resident.

“Most of the children are being treated at hospitals and a 2-year-old girl’s condition is a bit serious,” added a resident.

After discussing with the maintenance staff the residents figured out that the symptoms could be water-borne. They learnt that there was a separate water connection for the 10th to 17th floor of Tower-20. The total number of floors is 19, and the source of water is both borewell and tankers. The water that is pumped to overhead tanks gets filtered, which is then supplied to the houses.

An entrepreneur, whose two daughters have fallen ill, filed a complaint with the Bellandur police, who have booked two persons in-charge of maintenance from the Prestige Group.

Mokhashi and retired lieutenant colonel Jagwant Singh have been booked under IPC Section 269 – negligent act likely to spread infection of disease dangerous to life and 270 – malignant act likely to spread infection of disease dangerous to life.