Mysuru: His night shift at a tyre factory was to end at 7 am and was to return home after that. But fate willed otherwise and he entered the jaws of death, leaving his family members and colleagues shell-shocked.

Mysuru woke up to this tragic story of a youth who was crushed to death by a machine at J.K. Tyres, Metagalli, when he was trying to load rubber into the machine and his hands were caught amidst metals. The machine sucked him inside and his upper part of the body was crushed. Other colleagues, who were watching the accident with horror, could not do anything and one of them even rushed to switch off the power connection. But it was too late.

The victim has been identified as 27-year-old Ravi, son of Hanumanthu, and a resident of Sunnadakeri Second Cross in Mysuru. Ravi was working at J.K. Tyres since the past five to six years as a daily casual labourer. Since one week, he has been working in the night shift from 11 pm to 7 am.

Today’s incident occurred at around 6.55 am when Ravi was just five minutes away from closing his shift. He was working at the “Thread Extruder Unit” of the tyre factory and was feeding rubber to the milling machine. In the process, his hands were accidentally caught by the rotating wheels and he was pulled inside.

Due to the impact of the accident, Ravi’s upper part of the body was crushed. His colleagues, who were shocked seeing him being pulled inside by the machine, ran towards the main power line that connected the machine and one of the workers switched it off. But it was too late and Ravi was crushed to death.

Hearing about the incident, Metagalli Inspector Sunil Kumar and team rushed to the factory and began a probe. Soon, the news of Ravi’s death spread like wild fire and his relatives assembled in front of the factory demanding entry so that they could see Ravi’s body.

Raitha Sangha activist Venkatesh, who is Ravi’s relative, got his group of supporters and started shouting slogans against the factory and alleged negligence. They demanded entry into the factory which was objected to by other workers, security staff and Employees’ Union leaders Bharath Raj and Lokesh. This led to a tense situation as both the groups indulged in arguments.

While a group of permanent employees said that there was no negligence on the part of the factory and compensation would be paid to Ravi’s family, a group of daily wage employees alleged that Ravi died due to negligence. The Police had to intervene and pacify the agitators.

Narasimharaja Assistant Commissioner of Police Umesh G. Shet and platoons from Karnataka State Reserve Police and City Armed Reserve have been stationed at the factory to prevent any untoward incident.