11-year-old girl falls into open sump, dies

BANGALORE: An 11-year-old girl died after she accidentally fell inside a sump in front of their house at Muneshwara Layout in Laggere in Rajagopalanagar police station limits on Thursday night.The deceased has been identified as Sparsha, daughter of Nataraj, an auto rickshaw driver and Mahadevamma, a garment worker.The family hailed from Malavalli of Mandya district.The couple had two daughters Sparsha and her elder sister, Akshatha(14). Sparsha was a student of class six at a school in Laggere.According to the police, Nataraj had admitted his father to KIMS Hospital and he had gone there to look after him, while her mother had gone to one of her relative’s home. Before leaving, Nataraj had left his daughters at his neighbour’s house.The girls were playing near one Shanthamma’s house, which is opposite to their home, in the night.The sump in front of Shanthamma’s house was kept open as her family members were fetching water from that. Sparsha, who was playing there, accidentally fell into the sump and died.“Meanwhile, Nataraj returned home after some time and started searching for his daughter. Even Akshatha had not noticed where her sister had gone. After searching till 1 am, Sparsha’s slipper was found near the sump.They then searched inside the sump and found her body in it,” the police added.The sump was about 12 feet deep and they were not able fish her body out. A rescue team of the fire department was pressed into service and the body was fished out from the sump. On Friday, a post mortem was conducted in Victoria Hospital mortuary and the body was handed over to her parents.Rajagopalanagar police have registered a case of unnatural death and are further investigating.As there was Varamahalakshmi festival the next day, some women were fetching water from a nearby tap. It is said that the women were fighting to get the water first. Due to this, it is suspected that the nobody noticed the girl’s fall. “If Sparsha had cried for help also nobody would have heard it.Even there is no proper street light in the area and nobody could see the sump open in the dark. Even this might have led to the tragedy,” a police source said.