The police has started investigation in this tragic incident that took place in Bopal, Ahmedabad. After the labor contractor, now a case has been registered against the site contractor and engineer under the culpable homicide and atrocities act.
Ahmedabad: Police has now registered a case against three people in the case of the tragic death of two Dalit youths due to suffocation in the sewer manhole in Bopal area of the city. This incident took place on September 5, in which 20-year-old Vikas Lal Bahadur Kori and 21-year-old Kanhaiyalal Khushiram Kori lost their lives.
In this case, earlier only the labor contractor was arrested as an accused. But now Ahmedabad Rural Police has expanded the scope of investigation and has also made the site contractor and site engineer accused and is preparing to arrest them.
What is the whole matter?
The police have registered an FIR at the Bhopal police station on the complaint of deceased Vikas’s father Lal Bahadur Chhotelal Kori (48). Lal Bahadur, a resident of Amethi in Uttar Pradesh, said that his son Vikas was working as a plumber in Ahmedabad for the last three years.
The pain he has expressed in his complaint is heart-wrenching. Lal Bahadur said that on September 6, he received a call from his relative Anish. Anish said that Vikas and his friend Kanhaiyalal were asked to get down into a sewer (gutter) near ‘The Garden Bungalows’ in Bhopal, where Vikas fainted. They were also told that Vikas would be sent home in an ambulance for treatment. But when the next day, on September 7, the ambulance reached his house in Amethi, Vikas’ lifeless body was taken out of it.
Pushed to death without safety equipment
When Lal Bahadur asked Anish the reason for the death, the truth came out. According to the FIR, on September 5, around 1:30 pm, contractor Mukeshkumar Someshwar Adalat Thakur brought a pressure machine and asked Vikas to get down to clean the gutter. The most serious thing was that Vikas was not given any safety equipment.
As soon as Vikas got down into the gutter, he fainted due to the poisonous gas. His friend Kanhaiyalal also went inside to save him, but he also fell unconscious. Others present at the spot immediately called the fire department, who pulled both of them out and took them to a nearby private hospital. At the hospital, doctors declared Kanhaiyalal dead at 3:40 pm and Vikas at 10:40 pm.
Police investigation and new revelations
Tapsin Dodiya, Deputy Superintendent of Police (DySP) of SC/ST cell of Ahmedabad rural police, said on Thursday that the two youths were called to work on the private sewer line of a construction site. He said, “After finishing that work, they had to connect that line to the main sewer line of the Municipal Corporation, but the line was jammed due to rain. Our investigation has revealed that after this, both the youths were asked to clear the jammed line connecting the private sewer to the main line, and during this time this tragic accident happened.”
Action was taken against whom?
The police have registered a case against contractor Mukeshkumar Someshwar Adalat Thakur under sections 105 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) and 125 (endangering human life or personal safety) of the Indian Penal Code (BNS). Apart from this, sections 7 and 9 of the ‘Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act’ and section 3 (2) (v) of the ‘Atrocities Act’ have also been imposed on him.
DySP Dodiya further said, “We have already arrested labour contractor Thakur, who hails from Bihar. Now two more people, site contractor Saurabh Panchal and site engineer Jaynil, have also been made accused in the case. We will arrest them soon.”
The police also said that when they investigated the role of the site builder, it was found that he was not aware of the work being done.
Parshottam Vaghela of ‘Manav Garima’ NGO, which works on such incidents, says, “The law is very clear that those responsible for the death of workers, including government officials in charge, should be held accountable.”
Rajan Chaudhary
Courtesy : Hindi News