Mumbai: Three held in Kandivali septic tank death incident

A day after three labourers died in a septic tank adjacent to a public toilet in Kandivali's Ekta Nagar area while manually scavenging on Thursday, the Kandivali Police have arrested three persons. The arrested trio include the caretaker of the public toilet, who has been booked under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code for culpable homicide not amounting to murder along with provisions of Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act. They were produced before a local magistrate court and remanded in police custody.

Police have identified the arrested trio as Nizamuddin Khan, the caretaker to whom BMC had handed over the toilet, Dharamji Rana, a sub-contractor who looked after day-to-day operations of the toilet and Krishnamurthy Sandan, the labour contractor who had organised for the labourers. The deceased labourers, Sayyad Rauf, 35, Ganpati Virswamy, 45, and Annadurai Velmil, 40, had entered the septic tank to check if there was a leak after the residents had complained of a foul smell.

Police said that Sandan, who had hired the four labourers for the scavenging work, had fled from his locality after he learnt about the incident. The police, however, traced him using his phone's location and nabbed him. The deceased trio, all from Tamil Nadu who lived on a hand-to-mouth existence, were identified only after Sandan revealed their details.

The incident took place around 1.30 pm on Thursday. The three fell into the septic tank while cleaning it. After the fire brigade reached the spot, they pulled out the labourers and the latter was rushed to the civic-run Shatabdi but were declared brought dead. The widows of the labourers have demanded the strongest punishment for the accused and financial assistance from the state.