Under Pressure After Having Been Forced to Clean Manhole, Sweeper Dies by Suicide In a note, Narayana has alleged that top municipality officials had put him under pressure to falsely admit that he had voluntarily given up safety equipment. Representative image. Photo: Dalberg Advisors Urban25/Feb/2021 New Delhi: A sweeper in Karnataka has died by suicide, after he was reportedly put under pressure to make false declarations following outrage over the municipality’s decision to make him clean a manhole without safety equipment. The Times of India has reported that 37-year-old Narayana is registered as a sweeper with the Maddur town municipality. Maddur is a town in Karnataka’s Mandya district.