MADURAI: The Cooperative Department (Madurai) has launched an inquiry after a 65-year-old woman died allegedly after rice bags fell on her inside a PDS shop in Thirumangalam recently. While the department said the deceased was a casual worker, sources claim she was a consumer who was asked by the staff to unload a rice sack from a stack.
Sources said M Karuppayi (65), a resident of Ayan Mettupatti, was deployed as daily wager in the PDS shop in the locality. On August 11, she was deployed for arranging the rice bags inside the facility.
When a customer asked for rice, she removed a bag from the stack. At that time, several sacks fell on her. She fell unconscious with severe injuries in head, chest and thighs. The salesman and locals took her to a private hospital, and later she was referred to GRH where she died on August 14.
A case was registered in Sindupatti Police Station and a postmortem was conducted.
Subsequently, the Cooperative Department initiated an inquiry into the incident. A top official from the department said, ‘The victim was an elderly person and was not employed by the department. We never advise staff to deploy workers inside the facility. Local staff in the division claim she was a customer who entered the shop. We are checking whether the woman was deployed inside the shop or she deliberately entered the shop to remove the rice sack.”