“Who allowed him to go down the manhole?” asked the brother-in-law of a sanitation worker, who died of toxic gases while cleaning a sewer in a colony in Mundka area, asking justice for his family.
A sanitation worker and a security guard died on Friday in Mundka's Bakkarwala area after they inhaled toxic gases inside a sewer they had gone down to clean. They were identified as Rohit Chandilya aged 32, and Ashok, 30.
Speaking to reporters on Saturday, Satish Kumar said that Chandilya was the husband of his younger sister. Kumar said he had gone the spot where the two men had died on Friday, and found one of them was his brother-in-law.
The bodies of both the men had to be pulled out with the help from the fire brigade, as efforts to extract them manually by the colony residents had failed.
“He used to work as a sanitation worker under one Chandan Kumar Mishra. We want to ask why he went inside the sewer and who asked him or gave him permission to go. We have no idea for how long he was inside the hole,” Kumar said.
Chandilya, who is survived by his wife and a two-year-old son, was the sole breadwinner for his family, Kumar said.
“He used to live in a rented accommodation. Now what will happen to his family members? His family should get justice,” he said.
Police got a call at 3.43 pm on Friday informing them that a man had fallen inside a sewer in Pocket-D of Lok Nayak Puram, Bakkarwala. They reached the spot, Highway Apartment, and found two men lying unconscious in a sewer.
Chandilya worked as a private sanitation worker in the colony and Ashok as security guard in DDA flats.
There was a complaint of sewer blockage in the society and Chandilya was the first one to go down the sewer. But as soon as he inhaled the toxic fumes inside, he fainted and fell down. To rescue him, Ashok too went inside but he also fell unconscious.
They were taken to a hospital where they both were declared brought dead.
A post mortem was conducted on Saturday and their bodies were handed over to their family members, police said.
A case under section 304A (causing death by negligence) of the IPC has been registered.
A senior police officer said that the investigation is in an initial stage. The culprits behind the incident are being identified.
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