Roof collapse: Woman, daughter killed in Bellary

Heavy rains claimed the lives of a woman and her daughter after the roof of their house collapsed at Kurugodu in the taluk on Tuesday night. However, the incident came to light only on Thursday.

The police have identified the victims as Bibi Sultan, 65, and her daughter Nilofer, 21, who was a teacher at a private school in Dommaluru, near Kurugodu.

Bibi Sultan and her daughter stayed in their relative Abbas Ali’s house.The police suspect that the roof of the room in which the mother and daughter were sleeping might have collapsed on Tuesday night itself due to heavy rains. However, barring Sultan and her daughter Nilofer, no one was in the house at that time.

When Ali, who was away, returned on Thursday, he found foul smell emanating from the room and opened it. To his shock, he found the decomposed bodies of Sultan and Nilofer. The fire brigade personnel retrieved the bodies from the rubble. On Thursday, Kurugodu received light showers from morning. Following the rains, the Santhe region in the town turned muddy affecting scores of traders who come here every Thursday to set up shops and sell their goods.

In fact, the weekly fair is one of the largest in the region with traders and farmers from 33 villages participating in it. Though the gram panchayat gets lakhs of rupees as revenue from the fair, it has not bothered to develop it.