Arnala Sewage treatment plant deaths: Supervisor sent to police custody

Four workers died at sewage treatment plant in Virar. Police are investigating if standard procedures and safety protocols were followed.

MUMBAI: A local court on Wednesday remanded the supervisor of the PolyCom company, who has been arrested by the Arnala police in connection with the death of four workers at the sewage treatment plant, to police custody for two days.

The complainant added that his father intervened in the matter. Meanwhile, Seema and Raju allegedly called a group of people who hacked his father to death. (iStock)

The accused, Mahadev Kupte, was arrested after four young men from Virar East who were employed by the private contractor died on Tuesday morning when they were working inside a 30-foot-deep sewage treatment plant.

The police said the workers were undertaking a clean-up operation at the plant in Virar West, and they likely died of suffocation.

According to Vijay Patil, senior police inspector of Arnala police station, the accused would now be questioned about the employment procedure of the PolyCom company, the names of the owner, verification of the company’s license, and the SOPs to be followed by the employees while understanding the cleaning of the STP.

The Arnala police said that the four deceased – Shubham Parkar, 28, Amol Ghatale, 27, Nikhil Ghatale, 24, and Sagar Tendulkar, 29 – had been working for the firm for the past year.

Patil said that Kulte was not present at the spot at the time of the incident. There was a fifth labourer who was an eyewitness of the incident. The labourer told the police that since his leg was hurt, he did not enter the STP, but he saw all the deceased going in.

“The eyewitness told us that in the beginning, Sagar entered the STP to repair the electric problem. When he did not return in 10 minutes, Amol went to look for him. When both the men failed to return and also did not respond to their calls, the remaining two went inside,” said Patil.

The witness also informed the police that he panicked when none of the men returned. After waiting for 10 minutes, he hurriedly called the fire brigade and police officers to alert them, fearing for the safety of his colleagues and seeking assistance to rescue them.

While the police have registered a case under section 304(II) (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) of the Indian Penal Code against Kulte and the owner of the PolyCom company, they are still to arrest the latter.

Meanwhile, Sunil Tendulkar, father of Sagar, maintained that Sagar had suffered a shock and had died before he entered the STP.

The relatives of brothers Amol and Nikhil were disturbed a lot on Wednesday. “Amol’s daughter had been born just three days ago and today was supposed to be her naming ceremony. She has lost not just her father but her uncle as well,” said a relative of the Ghatale brothers.

The police are now waiting for the postmortem report to confirm whether the four were killed due to asphyxiation due to the chemicals in the STP, said Patil.