On Tuesday, two labourers perished after falling into an elevator duct from the fourth floor of a building that was still under construction in Vikhroli East. For causing death through negligence, the police filed a formal complaint against the contractor.
Ratnakar Muni, 31, and Uma Samal, 21, both from Odisha, were named as the deceased. The victims fell into the elevator duct at around one in the morning while working on the fourth floor of the Tagore Nagar building that was still under construction, according to the police. The complainant, 29-year-old Mithun Muni, is from the Ganjam district of Odisha. He claimed that his friend Niranjan and cousin brother Ratnakar were laborers who stayed in the city while their families continued to reside in Odisha.
For the previous six months, Ratnakar, Niranjan’s brother-in-law Uma Samal, 21, and another labourer, Arun Muni, worked in the construction of building number 38 in Tagore Nagar Vikhroli East. Around one in the morning on Wednesday, Arun Muni contacted Niranjan to report that Ratnakar and Uma Samal had fallen in the building’s lift duct and were taken to Ambedkar Hospital, Vikhroli, for treatment. This is when the incident came to light.
According to a police officer, the complainant and two other companions hurried to the hospital where they were informed by the physicians that they had been certified dead. When all the other laborers were eating dinner on the ground floor, Ratnakar and Uma Samal went upstairs to drink, the police discovered during an investigation. Then, there was a loud thump heard by the ground floor laborers close to the elevator shaft. When they arrived, they discovered the two unconscious.
The officer said that the laborers quickly rushed them to the hospital after descending down the duct with the aid of an iron ladder. The police officer stated that after receiving information about the incident, a team conducted a panchnama of the site, recorded the laborers’ statements, and filed a formal complaint (FIR) against the labor contractor under section 106 (1) of the BNS for failing to take the necessary safety precautions and for leaving the lift duct open.
Source: Hindustan Times
