13-year-old boy suffocates to death in sleep as gas leaks from cylinder

Bengaluru, Mar 9: A 13-year- old boy suffocated to death after a cooking gas cylinder developed a leak in his east Bengaluru house, which was locked from outside by his mother on Friday morning. The boy's five-year-old brother fell unconscious and is now recovering in a hospital.

The deceased has been identified as Sameer, a 5th standard student at a local school. His body has been shifted to Bowring Hospital for postmortem while his brother Shasheer is in critical condition and admitted to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of the St. John’s Hospital.

The victims’ mother, Kalavathi, told the police that she had refilled a gas cylinder with a local vendor on Thursday night. The police suspect the vendor was running an illegal gas refilling station in Jeevanbhimanagar. “The HAL police have registered a case of accidental death caused by criminal negligence. We have booked the gas vendor and have secured him for questioning,” said Abdul Ahad, DCP (Whitefield Division).

On Friday, Kalavathi, who is a domestic help, left her house for work around 5 am after locking the door from outside with her sons sleeping inside. Due to financial constraints, Kalavathi and her sons lived in a small rented room under the staircase of a building in Jagadish Nagar. The small room had no windows, the police said.

The incident came to light around 8 am when Kalavathi returned home after her daily chores. She opened the door and found her sons unconscious. On detecting a strong smell of leaking LPG gas from her stove, she alerted her neighbours.

With a few neighbours’ help, the two boys were immediately rushed to a hospital nearby where Sameer was declared brought dead, but doctors revived Shasheer and he was shifted to the ICU at the St John’s Hospital.

Kalavathi is a single mother from Nepal. After her husband passed away a few years ago, she came to the city with her two sons in search of work, the police said.