BHOPAL (Web Desk) – An Indian man has died after construction workers who failed to see him lying in a crater on the road buried him alive.
The incident took place in Katani district in the central state of Madhya Pradesh.
Police officials told the BBC that the 45-year-old man was drunk when he fell into the crater.
Two people including the driver of a tipper truck that poured gravel into the crater have been arrested.
The incident came to light when villagers saw a hand sticking out from under a pile of gravel.
After the rest of the body was dug out of the ground, authorities identified the man as Latori Barman, a local farm labourer.
Police say Barman appears to have been walking home drunk Friday night when he fell into a crater in the middle of the potholed road in Katni district.
“It was pitch dark. He didn’t see that crater,” said Katni’s police chief, Gourav Rajput.
The state administration has ordered an inquiry into the incident and promised to “take strong action against those found guilty”.
The local residents discovered Barman, who had died of suffocation, the next morning.
Police have arrested a road worker and a driver and charged them with culpable homicide over the death.
Authorities have given Barman’s family compensation of 50,000 rupees ($760).
Potholed roads and open sewer-holes are a common problem across India, including in big cities like New Delhi and Mumbai.
Roads built with substandard material and engineering often break apart in the annual monsoon season.
Around 7,700 people were killed last year across India because of defective roads, poor street lighting, government neglect and stray animals, according to official data on road accidents.
