Gujarat: 2 workers die, 2 in hospital after inhaling toxic gas at factory

Two workers died and as many were hospitalised after they inhaled toxic gas while cleaning the tank of a food processing factory in Gujarat's Anand district on Friday, police said.

The two workers suffocated to death after entering a tank of an effluent treatment plant at Ekta Fresh Food Company in Sokhada village of Khambhat taluka, an official said. Two other workers were shifted to a hospital in a critical condition and were undergoing treatment, he said.

The incident occurred in the morning, when one of the victims, Kishan Baraiya (27), entered the tank to open a block and fell unconscious due to the toxicity of the gas, the official from Khambhat rural police station said.

He said the other worker, Arvind Harijan (63), who ventured inside to save him, also met the same fate.

Two more workers were also affected by the gas. All four were pulled out and rushed to a hospital, where Baraiya and Harijan were declared dead, he said.

An FIR was registered under section 194 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), which outlines the procedure for the police to investigate and report on deaths under suspicious circumstances, the official said.

The incident follows close on the heels of a similar tragedy in Maharashtra's Palghar district on Thursday, where a nitrogen gas leak at a pharmaceutical factory left four workers dead and two injured. Police on Friday registered a case against the firm’s four senior staffers, an official said.

An official from the Boisar police station said the case had been registered against the senior employees of the pharma company under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) section 105, which concerns “culpable homicide not amounting to murder”.

“They have been named in the FIR. The investigation is underway, and no arrests have been made so far,” the official said.

The incident took place on Thursday afternoon at Medley Pharma, located on plot number 13 of Boisar Industrial Estate, some 130 km from Mumbai, according to the police.

With PTI inputs