Police booked the supervisor of the sewage treatment plant, site supervisor and labour contractor for alleged negligence, after three labourers suffocated to death upon entering a drainage chamber on Mira Road last week.
A case was registered at the Kashi Mira police station on January 18, two days after the incident, under Section 304A of the Indian Penal Code. The accused were identified as Narendra Antad and Prince Singh of SPML Infra Pvt Ltd, and labour contractor, Andwara Pathar.
Antad is the supervisor of the ten sewage treatment plants that the company operates and maintains for the Mira Bhayander Municipal Corporation while Prince is the supervisor of the plant where the incident took place.
Police said the accused should have instructed the labourers to not open the cover of the drain and enter it for cleaning.
On January 16, four labourers were knocked unconscious by the noxious gases inside the two-metre deep chamber. They were rushed to a hospital nearby where Mafizzul Mandal (19), Muzaffar Mohlik (24) and Rafiq Mandal (50) were declared dead on arrival. Aftar Mulla (49) is battling for his life.
A probe by the civic body showed that the men were not required to manually clean the sludge collected inside the chamber.
According to police, a preliminary inquiry showed that the workers were neither instructed about the standard operating procedure at the plant nor provided any safety gear.
“It was the responsibility of the company’s supervisor to ensure that there are no accidents at any plant. The labour contractor was responsible for ensuring a safe environment for the men to work in,” said an official from Kashi Mira police station.
