Three critical; houseowner and mason ‘pushed’ them to clean tank; case lodged

Two labourers died while three others are battling for life after they entered a septic tank at an under-construction house in Rohini’s Prem Nagar on Tuesday afternoon. The police have registered a case and begun probe.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (Rohini) S.D. Mishra said the deceased have been identified as Deepak (30) and Ganesh (35) while the injured have been identified as Rajesh alias Bablu (40) and brothers Rambir (33) and Sher Singh, all resident of Bhagya Vihar who were working as labourers in the area. Post-mortem will ascertain the cause of death, the police said.

The police said that houseowner Gulam Mustafa and mason Rambir forced the other four labourers to go and clean the 10-foot-deep tank. “The labourers had denied cleaning the tank because they were not trained for it but the two forced them and said that if they did not do so, their wages for three days will be cut,” Mr. Mishra said. Rambir and Sher Singh’s sister Jaya Vardha (60) said that the five of them had been working at the under-construction house for the last 20 days. “The houseowner asked them to clean it as well. Ganesh and Deepak were inside the tank for nearly three hours. They were taking out the muck, putting it in a container and my brothers were pulling the container up using a rope,” she said.

At noon, Jaya said, “Her brothers suggested that they take a lunch break. To this, Deepak and Ganesh said that they would finish the work and then go for lunch. Suddenly, the other three could not hear the duo’s voice after which they went in one by one and became unconscious,” she said.

Around 1 p.m., Sher Singh’s wife Soni came with lunch when she saw the five of them inside the tank and raised an alarm. As locals gathered near the septic tank, one of them called the police but they reached by late, the sister claimed.

‘Help arrived late’

Jaya claimed, “I kept shouting to call the police, an ambulance, but no one came forward. Eventually, our neighbour reached and went inside with the help of a rope. He pulled all of them out,” she claimed.

“If they were pulled out earlier, the two would have been saved,” she said. All the injured were rushed to Sanjay Gandhi Hospital where Deepak and Ganesh were declared brought dead while the other three are said to be critical. The police have registered a case under Section 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) and 34 (common intention) of the IPC, relevant sections of SC/ST Act and Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and Rehabilitation Act.