A 40-year-old man died of asphyxiation on Wednesday, while cleaning a septic tank belonging to a private tannery unit in the SIPCOT complex, near Ranipet town. Police said three other workers are being treated at the ICU of the Government Taluk Hospital in Walajah town. The incident took place around 11.30 p.m. on Tuesday.
Along with seven other workers, the victim K. Tamil Selvan, a resident of Sadupperi village in Vellore, was engaged to clean the 15-feet deep septic tank in the tannery unit. The victim went inside the tank and was meant to remove the silt in the tank. However, there was no response from him after he went inside. It is suspected that he inhaled the poisonous gas inside the tank, and collapsed.
Other workers tried to rescue him by jumping inside the tank but three of them also fell unconscious. The owner of the unit, G. Senthil Murugan, a resident of Sathuvachari in Vellore town was informed, and based on an alert, firefighters and police personnel from Ranipet SIPCOT rushed to the spot and rescued Tamil Selvan and the other three workers from the tank and rushed them to the hospital in Walajah town. The three workers are N. Mahendran (49), T. Raja (47), and S. Ramdoss. They belong to Arcot, Walajah and Vellore towns.
Doctors at the hospital said that Tamil Selvan was brought in dead. “Three [other] workers, who were admitted to the hospital, are under observation in the ICU. They were brought to the hospital at 12.30 a.m. However, the condition of the workers is stable now,” Usha Nandini, Chief Medical Officer (CMO), Government Taluk Hospital, Walajah, told The Hindu.
A case has been filed by Ranipet SIPCOT police under Section 304-(ii) (Culpable homicide not amounting to murder) of the IPC and under the provisions of The Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act, 2013 and The Scheduled Castes and Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. Further investigations are on.
