A daily wage worker, who was engaged as a manual scavenger, died allegedly while cleaning a sewage pit in an international school in Begur on Saturday afternoon.
The victim, Manu V., 25, was living in a rented house in Hongasandra. He leaves behind his wife Nandini and their four-year-old daughter.
Based on a complaint, Begur police arrested Raghavan, owner of Jaihind International School in Hongasandra, its principal Saroja, and Kishore Kumar, a coordinator.
The police said that the manhole is four feet wide and has a depth of five feet. The three reportedly engaged Manu to clean the sewage pit.
He was working alone when he fell into the pit. There was no one to help or rescue him, said the police. Some time had passed before a member of the staff noticed his body in the manhole.
While Manu was rushed to a nearby hospital, doctors said he had already died of asphyxiation.
Nandini told the police that Raghavan, Saroja and Kishore Kumar forced her husband to clear the manhole without providing him any safety equipment.
The Begur police have booked the trio under under various sections of the Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013 and Section 304A (death due to negligence) of the IPC.
The trio were produced before a magistrate on Monday. While the magistrate granted bail to Saroja, Raghavan and Kishore Kumar were remanded in judicial custody.
