3 killed in tank constructed at makeshift factory in Ghaziabad

EXPERTS SAID THEY FOUND HEAVY TRACES OF HYDROGEN SULPHIDE AND CARBON MONOXIDE INSIDE THE TANK

GHAZIABAD: Three persons died when they went inside a water tank — where they stored vegetables — inside a makeshift picklemaking factory in Daulat Nagar area of Loni on Sunday morning.

Experts from the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), who reached the site after the incident, said the found heavy traces of hydrogen sulphide and carbon monoxide inside the tank and that it is likely that the chemicals led to the deaths.

The incident took place around 9am on Sunday when factory owner Luvkush Prasad (60), his son Praveen Kumar (32) and his wife Champa Devi arrived at their factory after almost a week.

Maintaining that the factory was operating out of a residential plot in violation of norms, police said the factory owners had built a 20-foot wide and nearly 10-12 feet deep tank, which was used for seasoning vegetables to make pickle.

Satendra Kumar Singh, subdivisional officer (Loni), said: “Luvkush and his son Praveen went inside the tank that had knee-deep water. They couldn’t come out. When Champa Devi got to know about the incident, she raised an alarm.”

Hearing her cries, their neighbour Hriday Nath Dubey (45) rushed for help and stepped into the tank.

Despite efforts, he could not help the two and, in fact, got himself trapped inside the tank.

“We roped in police and NDRF teams, who retrieved the three bodies. They have been sent for postmortem. The district magistrate has also ordered a magisterial inquiry into the incident. An FIR is also in process of being lodged as the factory was being operated in an unauthroised manner on a residential plot,” Singh said.