Woman dead after JCB driver mistakenly buries her in the mud

A 32-year-old woman was killed in Raichur city after a JCB driver inadvertently buried her under a pile of mud while she was defecating in an open area

A 32-year-old woman was killed in Raichur city after a JCB driver inadvertently buried her under a pile of mud while she was defecating in an open area, a police officer said.

The incident took place at around 7 am on Wednesday when a labourer saw the legs of the victim protruding from the pile of mud. (File photo)

Raichur district SP S Puttamadaiah said the incident took place at around 7 am on Wednesday when a labourer saw the legs of the victim, identified as Tayamma, was a resident of Janata Colony on Ashapur Road, protruding from the pile of mud.

The officer said: “Despite the presence of public toilets, many rural women continue to practice open defecation. The JCB operator, identified as Nagaraja, was unaware of Tayamma’s presence in the bushes when he dumped the mud.”

He further said that Tayamma, like many others in the area, was compelled to defecate in the open due to a lack of adequate sanitation facilities. The accident allegedly took place when a JCB operator was clearing an overgrown vacant plot on Ashapur Road, which had become an area for local women to defecate.

“Unaware of Tayamma’s presence in the area, the driver, identified as Nagaraja (34), dumped a large quantity of mud, tragically covering her completely. Tayamma suffocated under the pressure of the mud and died on the spot,” Puttamadaiah said.

After the woman was discovered in the mud, she was rushed to Raichur Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS) but was declared brought dead. “The driver has been arrested and booked under BNS section 106 (causing death by negligence) and produced before the Raichur JMFC court,” the officer said.

The officer quoted Nagaraja as saying” “I did not see her or expect anyone to be in the bushes, which were about 7-8 feet high. The plot had not been cleaned for years, and I had no idea it was being used for defecation.”

BJPMLA S Shivaraj Patil acknowledged the issue of open defecation in Raichur city. He said: “Despite numerous awareness campaigns and government schemes, the community has not fully utilised subsidies to build toilets. I personally oversaw the construction of 95 community toilets in the city, but only 13 are functional. The rest have been vandalised.”

“At the last Karnataka development programme(KDP) meeting, I requested district minister Sharan Prakash Patil to halt the construction of community toilets under the Swachh Bharat Mission and redirect those funds toward individual toilets. Addressing open defecation requires sustained awareness efforts.”

An autopsy was conducted at RIMS on Thursday, and Tayamma’s body has been handed over to her family.