Two labourers who were engaged in cleaning work at the high-rise Videocon Tower in Delhi died after falling from the 10th floor, police said on June 17, 2019.
The incident occurred at around 3 pm when the men identified as Raju Kumar (23) and Ishtar Khan (22) fell from the 10th floor after the wire of the stand they were sitting on broke.
"Both were conducting mirror cleaning work outside the high-rise Videocon Tower in central Delhi area. They did not wear helmets, were not tied with safety belts and there was no safety equipment found at the spot," a senior police officer told news agency IANS.
"They were taken to a nearby hospital with multiple fractures. They were later declared dead," he added.
"The responsibility of cleaning work was assigned to MS Enterprises Company. The deceased persons worked for it and stayed in South Delhi," he said.
As per reports, a case under Sections 304A (causing death by negligence) and 287 (negligent conduct with respect to machinery) of the Indian Penal Code, 1860, has been registered against the company. No arrest has been made so far.
Khan’s brother Samad (38) told The Indian Express, “He has been doing this job for over four years now and was being paid Rs 13,000 a month. He lived on rent in a small house with his wife and their one-year-old daughter. How can they let him use a faulty machine? Even if they had safety gear, would they have survived the fall?”
Samad claimed, “We got a call from him at 3 pm about the incident. While my brother never spoke about work, Shakir (Khan’s brother-in-law who works in the same company) often said the company didn’t provide any safety belts and that it was scary to be so high up on buildings to clean them. Just because we are poor labourers, are our lives not worth anything?”
The post-mortem will be conducted on June 18, 2019, after which the bodies will be handed over to the families.
