COIMBATORE: A 27-year-old man died of asphyxiation while attempting to collect gold dust from a drainage canal that flows through the gold-smithery units in the city. The deceased was identified as M Dharma alias Dharmaraj (27) from Arivozhi Nagar near Kovaipudur. He was a daily wage labourer and often engaged in gold wastage collecting work from the drainage canals at Edayar Street, Thomas Street and Karuppa Goundar Street in the Townhall area where hundreds of gold smithery units are situated, said police. As per sources, wastewater from these units may contain small amounts of gold dust.
Several people, mostly sanitary workers, are engaged to collect gold dust. For this, they block the sewage discharged from these gold smithery units to filter traces of gold out of the sludge. On Thursday afternoon, when Dharmaraj was inside the drainage canal on KG Street, he slipped into the sewage water and died of asphyxiation, said police. A local resident found him inside the drainage and alerted Variety hall road police who then retrieved the body of the deceased. A case was registered, said police.