Police finalises chargesheet against hotel staff, plant chiefs

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, September 23

Delhi Police has finalised its chargesheet against employees of a hotel and managers of a firm involved in running the hotels sewage treatment plant (STP), where three men died after inhaling toxic gases, sources said.

Police have named five accused in the chargesheet likely to be filed in a week. Among the accused are two directors of Eco Pollutech Engineers (EPE), the company running the sewage plant, who were arrested.

Three others, named in the chargesheet, are employees of the hotel: the chief engineer, manager and director, police sources said.

The hotel employees have been charged for culpable homicide not amounting to murder and attempt to commit culpable homicide.

The chargesheet says the men, who had entered the STP, located in an adjacent building, were not given the safety gear. The nature of gas and water report is awaited from the Forensic Science Laboratory.

Police have written to the Delhi Pollution Control Committee, seeking details of the inspection it had conducted at the plant and whether the plant had due approvals - the reply of which is still awaited.

Five men were trapped inside the plant and inhaled poisonous gases on April 29.

Two men — Vikram Singh (26), hotel's contractual security guard and Ravindra Kumar (40), a contractual maintenance staff at the plant run by EPE, died on May 1. Gaurav Sukheja (34), deputy chief engineer of the hotel, who had inhaled toxic gases, died at a city hospital on May 4, taking the death toll in the incident to three. Two others, Nityanand (51), a member of the hotel's plumbing staff and Kamdev Patra (58), a contractual maintenance staff of EPE, were injured.

Two held in Moti Nagar case

In another similar mishap that occurred in a Moti Nagar hotel on September 9 which killed five workers cleaning the sewage tank, two senior managers responsible for operations of the complex have been arrested after probe found negligence on their part. DCP Monika Bhardwaj (west) said the arrested persons were identified as D N Mishra and Bharat Raj Verma.

The probe discovered  that the men had entered the tank without adequate safety gear, leading to their deaths. Senior police officers said that they are further investigating the incident and more people can be called in to join the probe.