Mumbai: A 55-year-old contractual sanitation worker, Angamma Devendra, was crushed to death under a Bobcat beach-cleaning machine at Juhu beach on Friday morning. Santacruz police have filed a case against the machine’s operator, Kaushik Hajra (22), for allegedly causing death by negligence.Devendra and Hajra, both residents of Juhu’s Nehru Nagar area, were employed by Pratisthan Sanstha, which was engaged by the BMC for cleaning of Juhu beach. A civic official said: “We will be carrying out an investigation into the incident and will take action against the organisation, if it is found to be at fault.”Police said the incident took place around 10am, when Devendra and five-six other workers were seated in the bucket of the Bobcat machine while it was in motion. The machine went into a pit and Devendra lost her balance and fell. She allegedly came under the machine’s left wheel and sustained severe injuries. She was rushed to Cooper Hospital in Vile Parle West, where doctors declared her ‘brought dead’.Hajra (22) was booked under Section 106(1) (causing death by negligence), along with other applicable sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita. During questioning, Hajra reportedly told police that he had asked the woman not to sit in the machine’s bucket, but Devendra ignored his instruction and remained seated there. No arrest has been made yet.
