Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru (SP)

Bengaluru, Feb 10: In a heart-rending incident, two small children were burnt alive even as their hapless mother looked on. The incident happened in a house in Laxmanrao Nagar near Adugodi in the city on Monday February 9.

The electric coil immersed in water stored in a plastic pitcher for bathing purposes caused flames due to overheating. As a result, two children sleeping on nearby cot were charred to death.

Manjunath, a goods van driver, and his wife, Satya, live in the third floor of a housing complex for economically weaker sections at Laxmanrao Nagar. The couple heat water by using electric coil. On Monday, Satya immersed the coil in the pitcher as usual, and went downstairs to bring drinking water which comes in morning hours only in the ground floor tap. She forgot about the coil and struck a long conversation with neighbours.

In the meanwhile, the coil got excessively heated, melting the pitcher, after which fire spread to the cot on which the couple's children, Naveen Kumar (6), and Kanishka (3), were sleeping. Manjunath was not at home at the time. Neighbours tried to help the children after hearing their screams on account of excruciating pain caused by flames but could not do anything, as thick smoke had enveloped the entire house.

Thereafter, both fire brigade and police station were called. By the time fire brigade personnel extinguished the flames and went inside,both the children had been turned into ashes, the policemen said. Satya, who was overtaken by emotions at not being able to help her children, who were dying in front of her eyes, collapsed to the ground. She was admitted into a private hospital.

Adugodi police said a case of unnatural deaths was registered. Deputy commissioner of police, Lokesh Kumar, and assistant commissioner of police, Yashwanth Sawarkar, visited the spot.