BANGALORE: The people of Bidarahalli are angry. A day after Nagesh Anjanappa was electrocuted inside his school sump, they are accusing headmaster
Govind Swamy of killing the boy.
Nagesh, 11, a class 5 student of
Bidarahalli Government Primary School, in Hoskote, Bangalore Rural, had allegedly walked into the sump to fetch water for the headmaster.
“School headmaster Govind Swamy assigns all kinds of work to the children, from sweeping to cleaning and drawing water from the sump.
On Thursday too, Govind Swamy and four other teachers had lunch in his chamber around 1pm, and told Nagesh to fetch water to wash their hands. The overhead tank was dry as the electric pump was defunct, and Nagesh was asked to step into the sump and get water in a container,” school sources told TOI.
There was hardly 1ft of water in the sump, which measures 10x12 sqft and is located inside the school building. The motor pump wasn’t working as its wires were skinned, and one wire was lying inside the sump.
Nagesh was electrocuted as soon as he stepped into the sump, but no one noticed this. Around 1.45pm, Govind Swamy directed another boy to get water, and the tragedy came to light.
“He was lying flat inside the sump and his hands, legs and face had turned black. We shouted and a labourer from a nearby building under construction rushed in. As he put his foot on the first step of the sump, he was hit by a minor shock. He threw himself out and rushed towards the switchboard and turned off the main,” sources told TOI.
With the help of locals, Govind Swamy and the others shifted Nagesh to a private hospital in KR Puram, where doctors declared him brought dead.
The school was locked on Friday, and attempts to reach the authorities went futile. Vice-principal Shobha Gangadhar, who was in school when the tragedy took place, refused to speak to media.
Nagesh’s parents Anjanappa and Nagaratnamma are daily wage workers in a quarry near Adur. Nagesh leaves behind a younger brother and his four-year-old dog Appu.
However,
Avalahalli police denied the allegation that Govind Swamy was responsible for the death, saying Nagesh appeared to have stepped into the sump on his own. “We are investigating,” they said.