Malad manhole deaths: Supervisor arrested for negligence

51-year-old plumber-cum-supervisor arrested for the death of a man cleaning a manhole without safety gear in Mumbai. Another man dead, one critical.

MUMBAI: The Dindoshi police on Thursday arrested the 51-year-old plumber-cum-supervisor of a private under-construction building in Pimpripada, Malad East who allegedly employed 68-year-old Raghu Solanki to clean a 30-feet-deep manhole on the premises without providing any safety gear, leading to his death.

Over two weeks after a 35-year-old chartered accounted (CA) drowned to death after his car fell into the Sirhind Canal near Doraha on April 5, his family has sought a murder investigation. (HT File)

As reported by HT, Solanki and Javed Shaikh, 35, a local resident died on Wednesday after lowering themselves into the manhole, most likely due to suffocation, while Aquib Shaikh, 19, is battling for life at a hospital in Borivali.

The arrested accused, identified as Manohar Nadar, was produced in court on Thursday and remanded in police custody for two days. The bodies of the deceased were also sent for postmortem, although locals said they would not accept the bodies if an FIR was not filed against the builder.

Solanki fell into the 30-feet-deep manhole on Wednesday afternoon, after which Javed Shaikh, 35, and his younger brother Aquib Shaikh, 19, rushed in to try and save him. While they did not emerge overground, 26-year-old Hussain Shaikh too tried entering the manhole to save the others but quit after he felt dizzy.

All three men were brought out by fire brigade officials and taken to the HBT Trauma Care Hospital at Jogeshwari. While Solanki and Javed Shaikh, who worked as a lighting technician at Film City, were declared brought dead, auto rickshaw driver Aquib was put on ventilator.

According to the fire officer on duty, Prashant Matekar, as well as preliminary police reports, the victims, after lowering themselves into the manhole, passed out due to the toxic fumes from the sewerage and then fell into the drain’s depths.