The mystery surrounding the death of a 10-year-old girl in the swimming pool of an upscale apartment complex on Varthur-Gunjur Road in the last week of Dec 2023 has now taken an interesting turn with the police arresting seven persons, including the president of the residents’ association at the housing complex and a property management executive, on Friday night.
DCP (Whitefield) Shivakumar Gunare told STOI the arrests were made based on the statements of the boys who were playing with the victim, Manya Damerla, and others. Around six of the eyewitnesses said it was a case of electrocution. The boys playing with Manya said they too had received mild shocks at the time of the incident. Keeping past incidents of electric shocks experienced by other residents in mind and based on the statements (of eyewitnesses), we arrested the suspects, Gunare said.
Manya Damerla, a class 5 student, was found dead in the swimming pool of Prestige Lakeside Habitat – one of Bengaluru’s largest housing complexes in – on the evening of Dec 28, triggering conflicting versions on the cause of death. While a section of the residents’ association office-bearers believed Manya had accidentally drowned in the pool, a group of residents alleged the girl was electrocuted before she fell into the swimming pool.
On Thursday, the govt’s department of electrical inspectorate dispatched its 10-page probe findings, confirming the girl was electrocuted after walking up to a point from where power was leaking from an LED light fitting. Police, who are yet to receive the report, said they made the arrests on the basis of statements from three children and other eyewitnesses, including Manya’s father.
Those arrested on Friday are residents’ association president Debashish Sinha, 37, Prestige Properties Management System (PPMS) executive Javed Shafiq R, and pool maintenance staff members Santosh Maharana, 27, Bikas Kumar Forida, 32, Bhakta Charan Pradhan, 35, S Suresh, 30, and Govind Mondal, 30.
This is the first time that an association president has been arrested for lapses that resulted in a fatality. All the seven arrested were produced before a court on Saturday and were sent to 14 days of judicial custody at Bengaluru central prison.
A student with a private school, Manya was the only child of Rajesh Kumar Damerla and Vinaya from Andhra Pradesh. The family resided on the 17th tower of the complex.
On the evening of Dec 28 last year, Rajesh and Manya were near the pool, when Rajesh left Manya to play with some of the other boys from the complex and went for a walk. A while later, he received a call from a neighbour, saying Manya had collapsed in the pool and was taken to a nearby private hospital. Rajesh rushed to the hospital where doctors said Manya was no more.
In the complaint filed that night with Varthur police, Rajesh sought a detailed investigation into the death of his daughter, following which, a report of unnatural death was registered. Additionally, Rajesh’s accusation against the residents’ association and its officials was converted into a first information report (FIR) under Section 304A (causing death due to negligence).
My daughter won’t come back, but I want to ensure that other children are safe here, Rajesh had said earlier.
On the night of the incident, apartment residents staged a protest, alleging negligence had caused the girl’s death. They pointed out that some residents had earlier reported suffering electric shocks near the swimming pool, but no corrective measure was initiated by the complex management.
Inspectorate confirms current leakage
Theethira N Appachu, chief electrical inspector to govt of Karnataka, said the inspectorate had submitted its report on February 8, strengthening the electrocution angle.
Spot inspection revealed the pool was connected to LED bulbs, using 12 volt direct current. At the point where the accident took place, the LED strip driver had failed. As a result, instead of DC, alternate current had flown, resulting in a power leakage into the pool that led to Manya being electrocuted.
