Two men were suffocated after allegedly having to clean a septic tank without protective gear in a banquet hall in east Delhi’s Ghazipur late Thursday evening. The police arrested the housekeeping manager, the general manager and the owner of the banquet room for questioning, but did not arrest them until Friday evening.
The deceased were identified as Lokesh Kumar, 35) and Prem Chand, 40 – both worked as caterers at weddings and lived in Trilokpuri, east of Delhi. You were promised a meager performance £1,500 per man for cleaning the tank, police later said.
Delhi had banned manual flushing on August 21, 2017 – defined as manually cleaning, carrying, disposing or treating human waste from dry latrines and sewers.
Senior police officers said a phone call came in at around 10:23 p.m. at the Patparganj industrial area police station saying that two men had died after entering a septic tank in the banquet hall of the Pearl Hl Grand Emperor. .
Deputy Police Commissioner (East) Deepak Yadav said a team had rushed to the scene and learned that the men had been called by a Rahul (only with a name), the housekeeping manager, to clean the tank at around 7:30 p.m. Later, around 10 p.m., Rahul found the men unconscious in the tank and alerted the police and other staff in the hall. As soon as we received information, a criminal and forensic team, along with teams from the Delhi Fire Department, the Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) and the MCD Boat Club, reached the site, pulled the men out of the tank and took them to a hospital, where they were pronounced dead, ”said Yadav.
The DCP said the identities of the two men had been established following local investigations. “Their bodies were taken to Lal Bahadur Shastri’s hospital for autopsy. Preliminary investigation suggests the duo died of asphyxiation, but we’re awaiting a detailed autopsy report. After the initial investigation, a case was registered under IPC Section 304A of negligent cause of death and Section 9 of the Prohibition of Employment as a Manual Scavenger and its Rehabilitation Act against Unknown Persons, ”the official said.
Yadav said the banquet hall general manager Amir Khan, housekeeping manager Rahul and banquet hall owner Jimmy Arora had been arrested and questioned. “We are trying to determine the sequence of events that led to the deaths. Appropriate legal action will be taken, ”said the DCP.
Later on Friday, around 50 people from the families of the two men and from the plumbing unions in Delhi gathered outside the banquet hall and protested against the immediate arrest of the owner and the caretaker.
Union chairman Sanjay Gehlot said although the government had provided machines to clean septic tanks and sewers, people would use workers as it was the cheaper option. “That is cruelty. The workers were not given any safety or protective gear. We are demanding adequate compensation for the families of the two men, ”said Gehlot.
Police said while Lokesh is survived by his wife and two children, a 15-year-old daughter and a 12-year-old son. Prem Chand has a wife and two sons, aged 15 and 9, with his family.
Comments are closed.