Days before Deonar incident, two workers died in septic tank at Kurla

Two arrested for deaths in December 16 case

Days before three labourers perished while cleaning a septic tank in a residential high-rise in Deonar, two others had died in similar circumstances at Kurla West on December 16. Vinoba Bhave (VB) Nagar Police arrested two men in connection with the latter incident on December 20. The arrested duo have been booked under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) for having knowledge that death may be caused due to the act.

On December 16, around 10am, four labourers — Uttam Rathod, 55, Dnyaneshwar

Jadhav, 27, Hari Chavan, 36, and Namdev Pawar, 40, were called to clean the drainage near Specialist Restaurant Limited Sweet Bengal Company by their supervisor contractor Tulshiram Vhatkar, 43. When the four labourers reached their place of work with equipment like a rope and a bucket to collect the waste, they were informed they would have to clean the chamber of a septic tank beside their plot. “Vhatkar asked us to clean the septic tank without providing us any safety gear for that specific job but we complied. As ordered, Jadhav was lying on his back to cleaning the tank, which was about 15-16 feet deep, but suddenly he lost his balance and fell in the tank,” said the complainant.

His colleagues heard a loud thud and he did not respond when they called out his name. In a bid to save Jadhav, More dived in the tank, only to meet the same fate. Rathod and Chavan, who were waiting beside the opening of the septic tank, called for help and alerted the fire brigade by calling its emergency helpline. A fire tender reached the spot and retrieved Jadhav and More. The two were rushed to the civic-run Rajawadi Hospital, where they were declared dead due to drowning and suffocation.

VB Nagar Police first registered an Accidental Death Report but later turned it into a First Information Report (FIR), after it was revealed that the labourers were not provided with safety gear. Police recorded the statements of eyewitnesses and first arrested Vhatkar, before nabbing Pawan Dubey, 27, the boiler operator of the Specialist Restaurant Limited Sweet Bengal Company. Police booked the duo under relevant sections of the IPC for not providing safety gear and for having knowledge that death may be caused due to the act (section 304(2)).