BENGALURU: The heavy rain that lashed the city on Sunday claimed another life. The body of a man, who was washed away in an open stormwater drain around 4 pm, was found around 7 pm in the rajakaluve at Byatarayanapura. However, the incident came to light on Monday.
The victim, Lokesh R (31), was a housekeeping staffer at GT Mall and was living with his mother and two siblings at KP Agrahara.
In another tragedy, a 22-year-old woman, an employee of Infosys, died after the car in which she was travelling got stuck in the flooded KR Circle underpass. In Lokesh’s case, it is said that he went too close to the drain to see how heavy the water flow was, but slipped and fell in.
Residents of the locality advised Lokesh not to get too close to the drain, but he did not heed their advice, sources said. When Lokesh did not come home till late in the evening, neighbours launched a search operation for him.
Nodal officers to oversee rain-relief works
A complaint was also filed at the KP Agrahara police station. The body was later found in the rajakaluve. It was sent to Victoria Hospital for postmortem after his mother Cheluvamma, who is a widow, identified the body. BBMP Chief Commissioner Tushar Girinath, during his city visit, told reporters on Monday that compensation will be given to Lokesh’s family.
He said with Lokesh’s death, the toll of rain-related incidents has gone up to two. Girinath visited the BBMP command centre and directed officials there to attend to complaints such as water-logging and uprooting of trees without any delay. He also issued a directive to appoint nodal officers from BBMP, Bescom and BWSSB to oversee rain relief works in the city.