Quarry owner among 3 held in Bengaluru boulder collapse that killed 7

Karnataka Police on Friday arrested three people in connection with the quarry collapse in Bengaluru South that killed seven workers after a massive boulder rolled down from an upper excavation site and crashed into labourers working below.

Those arrested have been identified as Panduranga, owner of Sai Ram Crusher, Lokesh, the quarry in-charge, and Raju, the local supervisor. Police said the three had been taken into custody for questioning as part of the investigation into the incident at Madapattana village under the Tavarekere police station limits.

The accident took place early on Thursday morning at a quarry site on Magadi Road, where two adjoining crusher units were operating. According to the police, a large boulder dislodged from the upper quarry and rolled into the lower one, where workers were present at the time.

A case has been registered under relevant provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita on the basis of a complaint lodged by a worker, Gopikrishnan. Investigators are also expected to question Uday Shankar, owner of Kaveri Crusher, and D Anandaswamy, owner of Basaveshwara Crusher, as the probe expands.

The seven workers who died were identified as Ramu, Rajpal Singh, Satyanarayan Singh, Ram Avtar Singh, Rajendra Prasad, Nuhar and Bhuvaneshwar Singh, all aged between their 30s and 40s. Police said one of the deceased was from Karnataka’s Yadgir district, while the others were from Madhya Pradesh. One of the injured workers is from Chhattisgarh.

Five workers were injured in the collapse, one of them critically, while four others managed to escape.

Central Zone inspector general of police S. Girish said the accident involved two separate quarries located next to each other. He said work was under way at both sites when a JCB excavator operating in the upper quarry shifted rocks, causing one of the boulders to roll downhill into the quarry below.

There were 16 workers at the lower site when the boulder struck, he said. Seven died on the spot, while the injured were taken to hospital.

A survivor from Tamil Nadu, identified as Gopi, alleged that workers at the upper quarry did not alert those below before moving the rocks. He said the workers at the lower site had no warning and only a few managed to run to safety after the boulder came crashing down. He also said machinery, including tractors and excavators, was badly damaged in the impact.

The force of the collapse left some bodies badly mutilated, making identification difficult, police said. A tractor, tipper and other heavy equipment at the site were also extensively damaged.

Chief minister D.K. Shivakumar said on Thursday that the government had sought a detailed report on the incident and that it was yet to be determined whether the quarries had been operating legally. He said action would be taken after the report was received and compensation would be announced once all details had been verified.

Leader of the Opposition R. Ashoka, who visited the injured workers in hospital, blamed the tragedy on negligence and demanded accountability for the deaths.

With IANS inputs