Four labourers die of asphyxiation

Our Correspondent
Tarn Taran, December 15

Four migrant labourers died of asphyxiation at a marriage palace on the Tarn Taran-Amritsar road here today.

One worker was admitted to a local hospital, where his condition was stated to be critical, the police said.

Prima facie it seemed that they had died because of inhaling carbon monoxide as they had kept burning coal in a storeroom of the marriage palace to keep themselves warm during the winter night, Tarn Taran Deputy Superintendent of Police (City) Sucha Singh said.

The door of the storeroom where the five workers had slept was also found to be closed.

The deceased were identified as Kishna (19) and Suresh (40), both residents of Uttar Pradesh, Vicky (17) of Assam and Love (30) from Bihar. Vinod (25), a resident of Nepal, was admitted to a private hospital.

The bodies were spotted Saturday morning by another worker, who had come for preparation of a wedding ceremony, the police said.

All of them were working as sweepers and labourers at the marriage palace.

Marriage palace manager Sukhwinder Singh said Mangjit Singh, an employee of the palace, noticed the bodies and informed the owner.

The police officials also checked the CCTV cameras to ascertain the truth. The victims had slept around midnight and had consumed food and drinks before sleeping.

A case under Section 174 of the CrPC has been registered.

However, Kishna’s father Ravi Sarkar suspected that some poisonous substance was given to the victims. He added that he was trying to contact his son on his mobile since yesterday evening, but he did not pick up the phone.

The exact cause of the death would be known after the postmortem examination. The samples of the food consumed by the victims last night have been collected by the police for examination.