Vatva GIDC tank tragedy: Death toll rises to six

One more labourer, Sarvesh Diwavkar, died on Tuesday, bringing the death toll in the Vatva GIDC effluent tank tragedy to six. Two others — Jitu Kumar Roy and Golu Singh (26) — remain critical at L.G hospital.

On Monday afternoon, eight contractual labourers were cleaning the chemical effluent tank of Advance Dyestuff Industries when they became unconscious due to a poisonous gas. A few others rushed in to rescue them; however, they too became unconscious.

The deceased have been identified as Shailendra Divakar (25), Puran Divakar (38), Bharat Divakar (25), Mavji Thakor (43), Bunty Singh Divakar (28) and Sarvesh (30).

The Vatva GIDC police have registered an offence under IPC Section 304 (Culpable homicide) against factory owners Kiran Patel and Bijit Shah, a supervisor and two contractors for not providing proper apparatus to the workers to clean the tank.

D.B Vaghela, additional commissioner of police, Sector-2, said “We have detained three accused – a factory owner, a contractor and the supervisor, who is hospitalised. One of the contractors had gone to Madhya Pradesh before the incident, and the other factory owner has run away. We have deployed a search team and will nab him soon.”