Police book car driver,civic agency engineers following drowning of techie at an underpass in B'luru
Bengaluru, May 22: Police have registered a case against the engineers of the Bengaluru civic agency and the car driver who took the vehicle into the flooded underpass in the city leading to the death of a 22-year-old IT staffer and endangering the lives of five other family members of the victim, who were later rescued.
The Halasuru Gate police on Sunday booked a case based on a complaint lodged by Batula Sandeep, who is the relative of the victim B Bhanurekha.
Meanwhile, driver Harish on Monday said he was on the way to Hosur road via City Municipal Corporation office when his car got trapped in the flooded underpass on Sunday.
Harish said he saw an autorickshaw and a car crossing the underpass. When he was weighing the possibility of crossing it, an autorickshaw driver advised him to go ahead.
"That autorickshaw driver stopped but insisted that I should go, so I crossed In just two minutes the entire underpass was filled with water and the car's engine got switched off," he told reporters.
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Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Sunday visited the St Martha's Hospital where the victim and the survivors were taken. He also announced a compensation of Rs five lakh to the next of kin of the deceased.
After the incident, the underpass has been shut for vehicular movement.
Following the tragedy, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike today started an audit of all the underpasses in the city.
"We are undertaking an audit of all the underpasses so that such incidents should not occur in future. We are closing those underpasses, which are not fit to use," Chief Commissioner Tushar Giri Nath told reporters.
Nath said he has given directions to the Chief Engineer of the civic agency to see that water drains out from these underpasses through the stormwater drains.
According to him, such an exercise has been undertaken at 18 underpasses in the city.
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Supreme Court takes suo motu notice of news over dog bite leading to rabies
New Delhi(PTI): The Supreme Court on Monday took suo motu cognisance of a media report of dog bite incident leading to rabies, saying it contained some "alarming and disturbing figures".
A bench of Justices J B Pardiwala and R Mahadevan termed the news item published today in Delhi edition of English daily Times of India as "very disturbing and alarming".
The news report was about the death of a six-year-old girl, who was attacked by a rabid stray dog, in the national capital.
Taking cognisance of the news report, the bench said, "The news item contains some alarming and disturbing figures and facts."
It said every day, hundreds of dog bites were being reported in the city and on its outskirts, leading to rabies and ultimately, children and aged were falling prey to the dreadful disease.
"We take suo motu cognisance of this news item," the bench ordered.
It asked the apex court registry to register it as a suo motu petition in public interest.
"Let this order be placed along with the news report before the Chief Justice of India for appropriate orders," the bench said.
On July 15, while hearing a separate plea alleging harassment over feeding of community dogs in Noida, the apex court had asked the petitioner, "Why don't you feed them in your own house?"
The top court told the petitioner's counsel, "We should leave every lane, every road open for these large hearted people? There is all space for these animals, no space for humans. Why don't you feed them in your own house? Nobody is stopping you."
The observations came in a plea arising out of a March 2025 order of the Allahabad High Court.
The petitioner claimed harassment and said she was unable to feed community dogs in line with the Animal Birth Control Rules.
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