Karnataka: 3 labourers killed after JCB runs them over in Raichur

Three labourer died on the spot after a JCB ran over their heads at Neelavanji village of Devadurga taluk in Raichur district in the early hours of Wednesday, officials said.

According to officials, the deceased identified as Vishnu (26), Shivaram (28) and Balaram (30) - all natives of Chhattisgarh were a part of a borewell drilling lorry team, who had to come to Neelavanji village on Monday to dig up a new borewell.

After digging the borewell the three workers had slept on a road beside the agriculture field when the JCB driver who was on that road, ran over them, killing them on the spot, officials said.

The bodies have been sent for postmortem and the families of the deceased have been informed regarding the incident. “The incident occurred at around 3 am. We have arrested JCB owner Balaiah and driver Basappa,” Raichur SP B Nikhil told HT. The accused have been booked under Section 279 (rash and negligent driving), 338 (Causing grievous hurt by act endangering life or personal safety of others) and 304A (causing death by negligence) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

According to officials, the mishap occurred as the JCB had no head light and the driver did not see the deceased sleeping on the road.

A case has been registered at Devadurga police station and further investigation is underway.

A Tamil Nadu based borewell digging company had obtained a work order to dig a borewell in Neelavanji village with a total of six labourers and started the work from Tuesday morning. Since there was no sufficient water, the agency stopped the work at around 8pm and wanted to continue the work from Wednesday.

Devagurga police inspector Vanakerappa told HT that the JCB owner Balaiah from Raichur who is a civil work contractor and also allegedly engaged in illegal sand mining.

The police officer added that after receiving the information about the alleged illegal sand mining in the taluk, Devadurga Tahasildar KY Bidari with a team from Revenue department raided the Doddambali sand stock yard from where the sand miners were carrying sand illegally.

Since a week, the tahasildar led team during night used to raid on three sand stock yards including Doddambali. To avoid the raids, the team used to reach the places by putting off their vehicle headlights. The illegal sand miners also used the same method till their vehicles laden with sand reached the stock yard as well the banks of Krishna river.

In the early hours of Wednesday, about 10 to 15-member team of Tahasildar Bidari in 2-3 vehicles was heading to raid the Doddambali stock yard by putting off the headlights of their vehicles. The illegal sand miners after their informers alerted about the arrival the raiding team vacated the stock yard by escaping in the vehicles including the sand laden lorries, tractors by putting off the vehicles’ headlights, the police officer said.

While escaping from the site by switching off the headlights, a JCB belonging to contractor Balaiah ran over on the three labourers sleeping in the field, Inspector Vanakerappa said.