A 45-year-old man was buried alive after he accidently slipped into a pothole. Latori Barman and his wife attended a village fair on September 18. After the fair, Latori’s wife went to her parent’s house and he, was to return home. However, he made a stop at a liquor store.
When Latori’s wife returned home later that night, there was no sign of her husband. She asked neighbors to help in trying to find him.
According The Independent ‘s coverage of this tragic story, as Latori Barman headed home that fatal night, he accidently and unknowingly fell into a pothole that was being covered with molten tar. Road workers who arrived the next day to surface the road did not notice Latori in the hole.
Latori was buried alive when road workers filled the pothole with hot tar before rolling it flat with a heavy roller.
On Monday, a local resident in the town of Katni made the ghastly discovery of Latori’s arm partially sticking out of the road. It was then, that Barman’s lifeless body was pulled out of the newly constructed road.
Local residents were enraged and protested by blocking oncoming traffic. Additionally, the angry mob targeted road construction workers after learning of their neighbor’s death. In an attempt to put an end to the angry protest, police intervened and promised to take action against the construction company.
A police investigator told the Times of India that Latori Barman’s body was sent for a post-mortem examination, and added that an investigation is underway.
“It was dark and there were no warning signs. He would have been walking in an inebriated condition when he fell into the pit between Udlana and Hata village and lost consciousness. Traffic had been restricted on the stretch as the pit occupied more than half of the road. Workers must not have noticed him while filling the pothole with bitumen.”
Katni’s Police Chief, Gourav Rajput, told CNN , “It was pitch dark. He didn’t see that crater.”
Road construction workers repairing the road that same night say that they didn’t see Latori lying in the hole. Police Chief Rajput said the road crew filled it in, burying him alive, and then flattened it with a roller.
The next morning, Latori Barman died of suffocation.
Police arrested a road worker and a driver and charged them with culpable homicide over the death.
In addition, Chief Rajput said authorities gave Latori Barman’s family $760 in compensation for his death – some consider it a small price to receive for being buried alive.
[Featured image via Ludovic Marin/AFP/Getty Images]
