Delhi news: At least two workers died while another fell ill after allegedly inhaling poisonous gas inside a sewer tank at a house construction site in southwest Delhi's Sarojini Nagar, police said today (October 9).
The incident took place on Tuesday afternoon when the workers went inside the tank, which is not in use, for cleaning. It is suspected that they were not wearing proper safety gears and died of inhaling poisonous gas, a police officer said.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (southwest) Surendra Choudhary said that a case under Section 106(1)/125/125(a) of Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita has been registered at Sarojini Nagar police station and a thorough investigation is being carried out.
The officer said the incident happened at the NBCC construction site at Pillanji village near metro gate number 2.
"It was found that two labourers were removing garbage from the gutter and became unconscious. To rescue them, another labourer went inside who also fell unconscious," Choudhary said.
Later, with the help of cranes and machines, they were taken out and rushed to the AIIMS hospital, where two of them were declared dead, he said. Ramashre, 41, a native of Uttar Pradesh's Hamirpur and Babundra Kumar Singh, 29, a native of Bihar's Gopal Ganj area died in the incident. Shrinath Soren, 28, of West Bengal's West Dinajpur fell ill and was recuperating at Safdarjung hospital.
Babundra's brother Harkesh Kumar told media that no safety equipment were provided due to which he lost his life.
"I have not been able to seen my brother's body yet. No one is helping us. My brother has lost his life due to the negligence of the company. No oxygen cylinder or any safety equipment was provided to him," Kumar said.
Kumar sad his brother is survived by his pregnant wife and a one-year-old daughter.
"God knows what will happen to them," he said.
Another labourer, who also worked at the site, said that initially one worker went inside the sewer. Later, the other two went in to rescue him but one by one they all fell ill, he said.
"This is negligence on the part of company and the supervisor. They are forcing us to work at the site without any proper safety gears," he said.
The wife of Soren, who is receiving treatment at a hospital, said she had cautioned her husband to not enter the sewer due to the strong stench coming from it.
"Two other workers in fact refused to enter. I dont know, what led my husband to go inside without any safety gear," she said.
She added that they have two children. An official said that NBCC had given the contract for construction at the site to another company. Police have questioned the contractor and supervisor in connection with the incident, he said.
He said police have taken the statements of other workers to corroborate the sequence of events.
