New Delhi: A day after two persons have died and two others injured after they went into a kitchen treatment unit in a restaurant named Pirates of Grill in West Delhi's Rajouri Garden, Delhi Police arrested two persons in this regard.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (West) Monika Bharadwaj told Millennium Post that they have arrested one Pankaj- area manager and Aftab- Unit manager in this regard.
"They are the employees of hotel and they were responsible for sending them inside the sewage,"said DCP West. Investigation is on from all angles.
On Saturday, the police received a call at around 1:30 pm that four men who got down in the kitchen treatment unit have fallen unconscious.
Soon, the team from the local police station and the fire department reached the spot and tried to rescue the injured persons.
In the hospital, two men, identified as Rakesh (45) and Ajay (19), succumbed to their injuries and the other two are still receiving treatment in the hospital.
They have been identified as Pankaj and Raju. They all are members of housekeeping staff of the restaurant," said a senior police officer.
Manual scavenging –a practice — in which workers enter into sewers and septic tanks to clean out excreta – has historically been connected to Dalit communities, making its prevalence another egregious case of caste discrimination.
Though, India banned the practice in 1993 and the law was amended to expand its ambit in 2013, manual scavenging continues across the country.
In 2018 alone, more than 10 people died in Delhi while cleaning septic tanks. In February 2019, the Delhi government flagged off a fleet of 200 sewer-cleaning machines, with the aim of eradicating manual scavenging in the Capital.
"We have registered a case against the accused under relevant sections and the investigation has begun," said a senior police officer.