Colleagues’ prank costs labourer his life in Nashik

NASHIK: A 30-year-old labourer lost his life in a prank played by his fellow workers at a food processing unit in Trimbakeshwar late last month.
During the lunch break at the unit on September 28, the deceased, Ambadas Lavghute, and his four fellow workers were blowing air on themselves using a pipe attached to a compressor. The pipe releases air at high velocity and is used to remove the skin of cashew nuts at the unit.
While engaged in their frivolous activity, Lavghute’s colleagues inserted the pipe in his anus. “Due to the high velocity of the air passing through the pipe, Lavghute started feeling uncomfortable and was immediately rushed to the Nashik civil hospital where he died soon after admission,” said superintendent of police Sachin Patil.
A case of accidental death was initially registered by the Trimbakeshwar police. However, after learning about the prank, the police told Lavghute’s brother to register an offence against the four colleagues on Monday. On Wednesday, the police arrested them under section 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder). A court remanded them in police custody for 10 days.
A police said Lavghute’s family too did not know whether the incident was an accident or a prank.