Elevator crushes painter to death

Team Udayavani, Jul 29, 2018, 3:06 PM IST

Bengaluru: A painter was crushed to death after an elevator which runs in an open shaft without any grills crushed him when he was painting the wall on which it runs.

The deceased painter has been identified as Venkatesh (53). The victim was painting the wall on which the elevator runs when one of the residents in the building got into the elevator in order to reach the ground floor. Venkatesh was crushed to death, after he failed to see the approaching lift as he was concentrating on painting.

The police have booked Somashekar and Sheshadri, two owners of the apartments in the Rajeshwari Apartment of Malleshwaram for criminal negligence, since on their behest the elevator was illegally installed in the building.

Also, H V Raja, owner of Bhaskara Advanced Automation, which manufactures custom-built material handling systems and personal lifts for differently-abled, elderly and sick people, is also a suspect in the case.

There are a total of four residents living in this apartment building; however, the police did not book case on two families who reside on the ground floor as they do not use the lift.

the owner of the company, which installed the lift Raja, in his defense said that he had installed the elevator after obtaining due permission and certificate from concerned authority, but the officials of the electrical inspectorate, who conducted spot inspection, confirmed that the lift was an illegal installation.

Any building that needs an elevator should include the same in their building plan, In this case, neither the real estate builder approached the electrical inspectorate nor made any provision for the same in his building plan, explained the officials.

A notice will be served to the builder of this apartment asking him to do away with the elevator or get the same regularized after obtaining necessary permission, assured the Malleshwaram police. They also said that they will inquire further on this company to check whether they have installed similar elevators elsewhere.