An 18-year-old ragpicker died on Wednesday after he entered a sewer in Outer Delhi's Bawana area to collect plastic waste, while another man who went inside to save him was also killed. The deceased have been identified as Chittaranjan and Abdul Salam. According to the fire department, they received a call around 11.25 a.m. about the incident.
According to police, Abdul Salam, a ragpicker, removed the cover of the sewer on the Ganga Toli Road near Balaji Chowk in Bawana and entered it. When Salam did not come out for a long time, his younger brother Sahil, who was near the spot, raised an alarm, they said.
A passerby, Chittaranjan Choudhary rushed to rescue him and entered the sewer but none of them came out. According to Atul Garg, Director, Delhi Fire Service (DFS), a call was received at 11.25 a.m. about two persons falling into a sewer in Bawana area. The fire department rushed two fire tenders for the rescue operation.
“The local police, an Emergency Response Vehicle, the fire brigade and ambulance were at the spot and efforts were made to get them out,” said Brijendra Kumar Yadav, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), Outer North. “The two men were taken out and shifted to Maharishi Valmiki Hospital where doctors declared them brought dead,” he said.
"The bodies have been sent for post-mortem. We have initiated necessary proceedings under relevant Sections of the Code of Criminal Procedure," the DCP said.
Till April 4 this year, three people were injured after entering in sewers. While two people died in 2021, three succumbed in 2020, two in 2019 and six in 2018.
The first death this year was reported on March 20 after a man died while cleaning the sewer of an apartment. In the second incident, three workers had a miraculous escape after being pulled out while working in a MTNL sewer line near Janpath.
On March 29, the bodies of four men were recovered from a sewer. The following day, two died after falling in a pit while repairing a motor in a sewage plant in east Delhi.