Bengaluru: 11-year-old boy knocked down by roadroller at Hemmigepura, dies

BENGALURU: An 11-year-old boy was killed after he was knocked down by a roadroller during a road-widening work at Hemmigepura near Subramanyapura in south Bengaluru on Friday. Bangalore Development Authority (BDA), which is implementing the work, has taken action against the assistant engineer and the contractor for negligence. The deceased is R Manu, a resident of Ganigarapalya, who was studying in Class 5 at a government school in Thalaghattapura.

His parents, Ravi Kumar and Manjula, work as daily wagers in an apartment and the family hails from Chamarajanagar. They had come to the city 10 years ago and were living in a rented house. A police officer said the incident occurred on 6th main road at 12.30 pm.

The roadroller operator was in a hurry and was reversing the machine. He failed to notice the boy who was on his bicycle and knocked him down. Residents rushed the boy to a hospital nearby where he was declared brought dead. The body was shifted to KIMS Hospital for autopsy and later to Chamarajanagar where the final rites were conducted on Saturday.

Kumarswamy Layout traffic police have filed a case against the driver, who is absconding. BDA officials rushed to the spot on hearing about the accident. Devaraj, assistant engineer, who was in-charge, was immediately suspended and Honnaraju, executive engineer, was transferred for dereliction of duty. Legal action has also been initiated against the contractor for not taking safety measures at the work site. BDA also announced that compensation will be paid to the family of the victim. Manu’s parents had gifted him the cycle only two weeks ago.

Dad wanted Manu to accompany him to school

Speaking to TNIE, Manu’s father Ravi said, “I had asked my son to accompany me for his Class 6 admission on Friday. But he said he would come on Monday. So, I took my daughter Tanu for admission
for Class 7. My wife Manjula had gone for house-keeping work in an apartment, when the incident happened.”