11-year-old girl drowns in sump in Bangalore

The festive spirit ahead of Varamahalakshmi puja was dampened when an 11-year-old girl, whose parents had left her at a neighbour’s house, accidentally fell into an open water sump in Muneshwara Layout on Thursday night.

The deceased has been identified as Sparsha, a Class VI student of Be Best School in Laggere. Around 11.30 pm on Thursday, she ventured out of her neighbour’s house to witness an argument involving residents of the locality over collecting water from a BBMP tank. Sparsha failed to notice the open sump and stepped into the tank.

The sump, which was inside the compound, was kept open to fill it with water.

People involved in the argument failed to notice the mishap as Sparsha drowned in the sump. The neighbour, Shanthamma, later filled the sump with water from the tank, but did not notice Sparsha. Unable to find Sparsha in the house, Shanthamma and her family members started searching for her in the locality. Later, Sparsha’s parents too joined the search.

Sparsha’s slippers were found floating in the sump. The girl had drowned. Her body was fished out around 1 am.  The deceased was the daughter of Nataraj and Mahadevamma.

Sparsha’s older sister, Akshata, 13, too was left at the house of Shanthamma.

Mahadevamma had been to her mother’s house in the same area, while Nataraj had gone to Kempegowda Hospital where his father was admitted.

The body was handed over to the family after post-mortem in MS Ramaiah Hospital. A case of unnatural death has been registered in Rajagopalnagar police station limits.