No safety gear for staff, firm manager arrested in sewer death

A 40-year-old man had died while three others were hospitalised as they fell while cleaning a sewer outside an apartment building on Tuesday.

Manager of a construction company was arrested and the owners summoned on Sunday in connection with a sewer death in northwest Delhi’s Ashok Vihar last week, a Delhi Police officer said, adding that the company had not provided any safety gear to the workers for cleaning the sewer.

No safety gear for staff, firm manager arrested in sewer death

A 40-year-old man had died while three others were hospitalised as they fell while cleaning a sewer outside an apartment building on Tuesday.

The victims were working for the private company and on Tuesday, around 11pm, they fell into the sewer while working. A delivery executive on the way spotted them and tried to help, but all the victims had collapsed due to toxic fumes inside the sewer.

The delivery executive informed the police and the four men were taken to Deen Dayal Upadhyay (DDU) Hospital. One of them, identified as Arvind, 40, a resident of Kasganj in Uttar Pradesh, was declared dead on arrival. The three others, Sonu and Narayana, from Kasganj, and Naresh, a native of Bihar, were admitted to the intensive care unit.

Bhisham Singh, DCP (northwest) said, “We investigated the matter and found the private company had taken the cleaning work for days but had not provided any safety equipment to its workers. The manager, Manoj Saxena, was questioned and arrested.”

Police said Saxena was incharge of the cleaning work and safety of workers. He has been booked for causing death by negligence and endangering life, and under the Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013.

Another senior police officer said, “We have also summoned the owners in connection with the case. Four men were put at risk without gloves, mask or anything. Also, manual scavenging is illegal and the construction company has many such works. We first contacted the civic agency who told us about the private company involved.”