Four die cleaning septic tank at Surat jewellery processing unit

Surat: Four persons, including three sanitation workers, lost their lives while cleaning a septic tank at a jewellery processing unit on Ashwini Kumar Road area of Surat, on Sunday morning. The deaths were caused by inhalation of poisonous gas leading to asphyxiation, said police.

The deceased were identified as sanitation workers Vikas Sonwane, Vijay Ahire, Yogesh Jadav and the jewellery unit’s maintenance manager Nimesh Savaliya, police added.

Late on Sunday evening, an FIR was filed against the owner of jewellery unit and Savaliya under BNS sections 106(1), 286 and 54 for causing death by negligence and negligent conduct with respect to poisonous substances. The FIR was filed based on a complaint registered by Akash Sonwane, brother of deceased Vikas Sonwane.

The incident took place in the basement of building housing Ratih Jewels LLP, where the septic tanks that collect effluent from the jewellery processing unit, have been placed.

According to police, first Jadav entered one of the septic tanks to clean the sludge but failed to emerge. Sonawane and Ahire then descended into the tank in an attempt to rescue him, and they too did not return. Savaliya, upon receiving no response from inside, alerted the fire brigade and then jumped into the tank himself in a bid to save the three workers. All four perished, said police.

When the fire team arrived at around 10.30am, they found a complete absence of safety equipment at the site — no masks, no safety kits, nothing. Equipped with their own gear, firefighters entered the tank and retrieved the bodies one by one. The deceased were shifted to SMIMER Hospital, where all four were declared dead on arrival.

Deputy commissioner of police (Zone-1) Alok Kumar confirmed the incident and underlined the gravity of the negligence involved. “No safety protocols were followed at the time of cleaning,” he said, adding that the unit carries out large-scale jewellery processing and cleaning, and the septic tanks are cleaned once every two months. Police have registered an FIR and launched a detailed probe. CCTV footage from the premises is being analysed to fix responsibility.

Forensic postmortem of all four victims has been initiated to determine the exact nature of the toxic gas that caused their deaths.