BENGALURU: After a 34-hour search operation, the body of civil engineer Mithun Kumar (28) was fished out from an open drain in KR Puram on Sunday morning. Mithun, a resident of Gayatri Layout in KR Puram, was washed away in the storm water drain (SWD) right next to his house on Friday night, after heavy rain lashed Bengaluru and the city outskirts.
Dr KV Trilok Chandra, Special Commissioner, BBMP, Mahadevapura Zone, said the search operation resumed at 7am Sunday. A team of 50 NDRF and SDRF personnel was deployed to search for the body soon after the alert was sounded on Friday night. They had searched areas over a 2km distance from the spot.
Kumar’s house is next to the storm water drain, that was swollen with rainwater. Water from the adjoining areas was also flowing into the open drain. Kumar, who tried to save his parked bike from being washed away, fell into the drain. Though his friends tried to lift him out of the drain, they failed and he was washed away.
BBMP Chief Commissioner Tushar Girinath said the government would give Rs 5 lakh as compensation to Kumar’s family. His body was handed over to the family after postmortem. The last rites will be conducted in his native Sagar, in Shivamogga district, on Monday.
Kumar’s younger brother Satvik had filed a police complaint. In another incident on the same day, 62-year-old Muniyamma died after a compound wall collapsed. Due to heavy rain, about 400 houses were also flooded in KR Puram and Mahadevpura on Friday night.