BENGALURU: Three labourers, including an electrician, suffocated to death while cleaning and repairing a sewage treatment tank at the Royal Citadel apartments in Begur, near Electronics City, on Monday.
“The victims got into a 12-feet-deep tank in the ground floor and had no safety equipment on,” a police source said.
The deceased have been identified as Jagadish Kumar of Mysuru, Ranjan of Odisha, and Mahesh of Nepal. Police said the incident took place around 5.30 pm.
Jagadish, the electrician, was repairing the motor while Ranjan was cleaning the tank. Ranjan fell unconscious after a while due to asphyxiation, and when he did not come back up, Jagadish and Mahesh went inside the tank.
Umesh, the contractor who had hired the trio, was chatting with a few neighbours while the labourers were at work. After a while, he returned and found them lying inside the tank. He alerted the fire and emergency services personnel, who rushed to the spot and retrieved the bodies.
They were taken to a hospital, where they were declared brought dead.
Umesh was arrested on charges of negligence and for not providing the workers safety equipment.
Previous Incidents
November 8: A 45-year-old labourer, Srinivas, and his son Bhaskar (24) suffocated to death after they got into a toilet pit in a house Raghuvanahalli on Kanakapura Main Road.
August 18: Two labourers suffocated to death while cleaning a manhole in the Income Tax and Central Excise Department quarters near Social Welfare Minister H Anjaneya’s house on Jayamahal Road. The victims were Prasanna Kumar (29), a resident of M S Palya, and Yathiraj alias Sethu (23), a resident of K G Halli.