BANGALORE: An 18-month-old girl BeronikaNayak drowned while playing in a fountain of a residential school near Hennur, East Bangalore on Tuesday evening.
The accident happened in the fountain in the middle of which is a St Mary’s statue in Pallotti Nilaya, a residential school in Chellikere, Kalyan Nagar.
Beronika was the only daughter of Sameer Nayak and Nilima Nayak, both from Odisha. Sameer works as a driver at Pallotti Nilaya, while Nilima is a homemaker. The couple resides in quarters on the premises. The child would play near the fountain but always maintained a safe distance from it, security guard Lakshman told police.
On Tuesday evening, Nilima saw the child playing near the pool. Just after she returned from dumping garbage, it started drizzling and she started looking for the girl but couldn’t find her.
Lakshman first spotted the drowned child. “I was standing near the main gate and saw the child near the fountain around 4.55pm. I was walking towards the office around 5.15pm when I found the child in the pond,” Lakshman told Hennur police.
Fr Walter of Pallotti Nilaya told TOI: “I heard a commotion and rushed to the spot. The child, clad in a black T-shirt and white trousers, was lying motionless.” The child was immediately shifted to St Philomena’s Hospital where doctors declared her dead on arrival. An autopsy was conducted on Wednesday at Ambedkar Hospital.
