Two Dalit men died of asphyxiation while cleaning a sewage chamber at the staff quarters of Ordnance Clothing Factory in Tamil Nadu’s Avadi on Thursday.
The deceased are K Moses, 40, of Pattabiram, and C Devan, 50, of Giri Nagar, Avadi.
N Baskaran, Avadi Deputy Commissioner said that the police arrested the contractor and the supervisor on Thursday, reports Indian Express.
“The workers were made to enter the pit without providing any safety gear. The contractor belonged to the Most Backward Community (MBC) and the workers belonged to the SC community,” the officer said.
They were booked on charges of culpable homicide not amounting to murder and provisions of the Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.
Moses, the first to open the manhole lid, faced immediate exposure to noxious gas upon lifting it, causing him to fall into the chamber, which was 3 feet wide and 15 feet deep, with a connected sewage line. In an attempt to rescue Moses, Devan also inhaled the dangerous gas and fell into the chamber, according to Times of India.
