A week after the horrific deaths of three manual scavengers in Bengaluru, the Baiyapanahalli Police on Monday arrested three officials from Ramky Enterprises, the contractor responsible for the safety of the workers.
The three accused, K Babu Reddy, the Assistant General Manager of Projects, NT Reddy, Manager of Projects of Ramky Enterprises and Vemula Aneneyulu, the sub-contractor of the firm were arrested in Hyderabad.
The police had filed a case under section 304 of the IPC and section 8 of the Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013.
According to the police, as soon as the incident came to light, the accused had fled to Hyderabad.
On Friday, Babu Reddy tried to deceive the police and had sent two persons to surrender and claim that they were the contractors responsible for the deaths.
“They had absconded for seven days and also tried to dupe us. After the two persons surrendered, we questioned them and figured out that they had been sent to take the fall after being paid off by Babu Reddy. We gathered more information about the accused from the duo,” a senior police official said.
The accused have been remanded to five-day police custody. The police are recording their statements and an additional three accused are still absconding.
In the wee hours of March 6, Anjaneya Reddy, Yerraiah and Dhavathi Naidu, went down a manhole in CV Raman Nagar and died within seconds due to asphyxiation.
They suffocated due to the toxic fumes present in the manhole and the three men are believed to have been forced to decongest the manhole by Ramky Enterprises without any safety gear.
Also, when the victims’ family member had come down from Andhra Pradesh to Bengaluru to collect the bodies, officials from Ramky had posed as activists and tried to pay off the family members Rs 30,000.