BHOPAL: Four workers died after inhaling poisonous gases while cleaning a private septic tank at Bardu village of Dewas district in Madhya Pradesh late on Sunday night.
The deceased have been identified as Vijay (21), Rinku (18), Ishwar Thakur (38) and Dinesh (40), all natives of Dewas district. Kamal Sendhav had hired five men to clean the blocked eight-feet septic tank outside his house.
"One of the men left with a tanker full of waste extricated from the septic tank at around 9 pm," said SP Dewas Anshuman Singh. Seeing that there was more waste inside the tank, the other four men climbed down into the tank with the help of a ladder. They were then choked to death due to some poisonous gas being released deep in the tank. The matter came to light when the fifth worker returned after emptying the tanker at around 10 pm.
"The fifth person spotted one of the men unconscious inside the tank. He raised an alarm after which the matter was reported through the Dial 100 emergency response service. All four bodies were retrieved from the septic tank by 2 am on Monday," said SP Dewas. A case has been registered under Section 174 of CrPc and investigations are underway.