Contractor, 3 others held after 2 drown in manhole

The Mumbai Fire Brigade said the incident took place at 4.22 pm at Shivaji Nagar’s 90-feet road. The two men rushed to Rajawadi hospital where they were declared dead before admission.

According to BMC’s preliminary report, the labourers were employed by a private contractor to undertake cleaning work when the tragedy struck.

“It is a sewerage tunnel that was constructed recently. The process of testing the water flow was going on, which is a routine process before the monsoon every year. Two workers were inside. However, due to heavy rain, the channel overflowed and the workers unfortunately drowned,” said an official, on condition of anonymity.

Later on the complaint of Ramkrishna’s father Niranjan, officials from Shivaji Nagar police station registered a case under sections 304 (punishment for culpable homicide not amounting to murder0 and 34 (common intention) of the Indian Penal Code against the contractor Asjad Ahmad Arshad Siddiqui, incharge Krishna Rudaji Purohit, supervisor Pramod Mishra and Ashwin Dalaram Chaudhary.

A senior police officer said, “The four persons have been arrested for not taking necessary safety measures which has cost the lives of two individuals. We are probing the matter further to check whether more persons are involved.”