Infosys techie who died in Bengaluru rain fury had family visiting, hired MUV that drowned

Bengaluru rain: Bhanu Rekha and her family were stuck in this car in the flooded KR Circle underpass.

Bhanu Rekha, the 22-year-old Infosys employee, who died in Bengaluru’s rain fury on Sunday, had her family visiting her in the city. The young woman, her mother and other relatives who arrived from Andhra Pradesh’s Vijayawada, had hired an MUV which got stuck in a flooded underpass, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said.

The family was trapped in neck-deep water the white car in the city’s busy KR Circle underpass amid heavy rain late Sunday afternoon and the water gushed inside the vehicle, which had six passengers and a driver inside.
"The family from Vijayawada in Andhra Pradesh had hired a car and come to see Bengaluru. Bhanu Rekha works in Infosys. Due to the downpour, the barricade at the underpass fell and the driver took the risk of crossing the underpass, which he should not have," Siddaramaiah, who met the woman’s family at Bengaluru’s St Martha’s Hospital, told reporters.

According to eyewitnesses, the driver of the car tried to zoom through the water in the underpass, but the car got stuck and was almost submerged. People who rushed to help those inside the vehicle reportedly threw sarees and ropes to help them stay afloat. While two of them were dragged out by swimmers of the emergency services personnel, others were brought out using a ladder. Videos showed two women climbing onto the road above the underpass using a ladder provided by the rescue teams.

The survivors were rushed to the hospital where they found Bhanu Rekha dead.

Siddaramaiah said allegations that the woman did not receive timely treatment at the hospital and that she was alive when taken there will be investigated.

“The patient was frothing at the mouth, her pupils were dilated and there was no pulse. An ECG was done immediately, and it showed a flat line. She was declared dead —due to drowning,” Dr Vaishali DS, emergency medical officer, St Martha’s Hospital, told The Times of India.

Several parts of Bengaluru were flooded, with numerous areas reporting extremely slow-moving traffic and power-cuts due to the sudden heavy rain. The downpour uprooted several huge trees and even led to the collapse of a building in north Bengaluru’s Vidyaranyapura.

Neighbourhoods such as Malleswaram, Rajaji Nagar, Srirampuram, Kengeri, Mysuru Road and several other low-lying areas saw water gushing into several homes.