2 choke to death inside sewer line

Contractor Vijay Ramlal Verma (35) and his worker Vijay Sastanand Jha entered the drainage line one after the other and apparently got choked to death after inhaling noxious fumes in the drainage line.

Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) officials said they had nothing to do with the work as they had not asked the contractor to clean the drain. Officials said there was a possibility of some other private party,perhaps a builder,trying to tamper with the PMC’s drainage line without seeking the necessary permission. Police also suspect that they were cleaning the drainage line on the directives of a private party,which is yet to be traced.

An accidental death case was registered at Hadapsar police station. Primary investigation revealed that around 10 am,Jha entered the 18-feet deep drainage line. When he did not come out,Verma too entered the drainage to check but he also got stuck inside. A citizen at the spot who saw the two entering the drainage informed the police.

Soon,a police team and a fire brigade reached the spot. Firemen removed the bodies of Verma and Jha from the drainage pit. Police suspect they died of suffocation. Senior inspector Pandharinath Mandhare told mediapersons that investigation was on to know who had given the contract to clean the drain.

On receiving the information of two persons dying in the drain,a team of PMC visited the spot. Madhav Jagtap,ward officer of PMC’s Hadapsar ward office,said,”The drainage work was not carried out by PMC. None of the deceased were PMC workers.”

“PMC’s drainage line has been tampered with by someone. We have informed the road department about it. There is a possibility of some builder involved in tampering with the drainage line. But nothing has been confirmed so far. We do not know who instructed them to enter the drainage line. Police investigation is on,” he added.

Police said Verma was a native of Madhya Pradesh and Jha was from Bihar.

Both came to Pune about five years ago for work and were currently residing in Hadapsar. Verma was looking after PMC’s public toilet in Malwadi. He was also taking drainage cleaning work from private parties. Jha was working as a labourer for Verma.

Police said Verma is survived by wife and two children. While Jha is survived by wife and a one-and-half-year-old son. The bodies were handed over to the families after postmortem.