Karnataka tragedy: 2 workers killed after inhaling toxic fumes at Bidar chemical waste processing unit

A senior police officer told South First that seven people were working in shifts at the factory that had opened in May 2020.

“The company receives loads of pharmaceutical and chemical wastes from several sources, and they are dumped into an underground waste processing sump and processed,” the officer said.

Lorry driver Mohammed Kutubuddin (47) received a call on Sunday night from his son’s company stating that his son Shadab had fallen unconscious and had been taken to High-Tech Hospital in Humnabad.

Shadab’s family and relatives rushed to the hospital, where the authorities said he was dead on arrival, and that his body had been shifted to a government hospital in Humnabad for post-mortem examination.

Kutubuddin rushed to the government hospital and identified his son’s body, after which the post-mortem examination was carried out.

Kutubuddin told South First that his son had studied a paramedical course and started working as a lab assistant at the waste management company.

“They offered him ₹17,000 as salary, but had not paid him for at least the past three months. I am a lorry driver and he started working to support me as I have four more children,” he said.

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Dead before reaching hospital

The police explained to Shadab’s family that he and his colleague Inderjeet were standing close to the underground sump where pharmaceutical and chemical wastes from one vehicle were getting unloaded while another vehicle was loading the processed waste.

The two fell unconscious all of a sudden, said the cops. A few others who saw them falling informed the factory manager who, with the help of the watchman, managed to move them away from the sump and shifted them to the hospital, where they were declared dead on arrival.

Other workers reportedly told the police that they had seen fumes emanating from the sump while the chemical liquid was being dumped into it.

“The victims, who were standing close to the sump, inhaled the toxic fumes and instantly collapsed and became unconscious. There were no visible burns on them,” a senior police officer from the Humnabad Police Station told South First.

Based on a formal complaint by Kutubuddin, the Humnabad police, on Monday, 22 January, registered an FIR against Panduranga Reddy, the company owner, its director P Kondareddy, Jyoti Prakash Patnayak factory manager and two officials — factory officer and environmental officer under Sections of 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder), 284 (negligent conduct with respect to poisonous substance) and 149 (unlawful assembly for a common intention) of the IPC.

“We have conducted inquiries and have arrested the factory manager, Jyoti Prakash Patnayak, and produced him before a magistrate and remanded him in judicial custody,” the officer said.