IT firm owner, officials booked for negligence after three die in STP tank on office premises

An FIR of death due to negligence has been registered against the representatives of a multinational information technology company in Greater Noida in connection with the death of three workers, who drowned in the company’s sewage treatment plant tank on its campus on Monday evening, senior police officers said on Tuesday.

Ashok Kumar, additional deputy commissioner of police, Greater Noida, said the incident was reported to the police by the company, Coforge Digital IT Solutions, around 6.30pm on Monday.

The police identified the deceased as Mohit Kumar (24), a resident of village Hateva, in Dankaur, Greater Noida; Hari Govind (26), a resident Mangalpur, Kanpur; and Ankit Kumar (21), a resident of Barsana, Mathura. They said the three men were workers of the company and had gone to the STP plant in the basement of the company building for routine maintenance and upkeep work when they slipped and fell into the septic tank and died.

“The three people were fished out of the 20 foot deep tank with the help of fire brigade, but they were declared dead on arrival at the hospital,” said Kumar.

Following the incident, police informed the family members of the deceased and a written complaint was taken from them in order to register the FIR.

“The FIR has been registered against Coforge company owner, officials, and management under Section 304A (death due to negligence) of the Indian Penal Code, on the basis of a written complaint from the family of the deceased at Ecotech-1 police station,” said the ADCP.

The complaint said, “The company’s owner/officials/management did not provide adequate safety equipment for duty in the sewage treatment plant. Despite that, on June 24, the three people were sent to the sewage plant, and they died by drowning. This is a gross negligence on the part of the company’s owner/management officials. For which they are completely responsible. If safety equipment was provided, these three people would have been alive.”

Anuj Kumar. station house officer, Ecotech-1 police station, said the bodies were handed over to the respective family members after autopsy on Tuesday afternoon.

“The autopsy reports are awaited. Investigation is underway into the cause of the death of the three people, which is still suspicious. We are yet to ascertain how three people fell into the tank at the same time and got drowned,” said the SHO.

Representatives of Coforge did not respond to calls and messages seeking their comment despite repeated attempts.

Bijendra Kumar, Mohit Kumar’s older brother and a resident of Hateva, Dankaur, said he received information about the incident around 8pm on Monday.

“The police called me saying my brother was involved in an accident at the company and was at Government Institute of Medical Sciences, Greater Noida. When I reached there, I was told that he died,” said Kumar, who works at a factory in Greater Noida.

He said Mohit was employed by the company for a monthly salary of ₹12,000 since the past two years. “He used to handle the water supply works at the firm. We are five siblings, and Mohit was the second, and we have three younger sisters,” said Bijendra.

He added that the family survived on his and Mohit’s salary.

“We lost our mother at a young age and our father is a heart patient and remains sick. The house ran on Mohit’s and my salary. Our family is in complete shock,” said Bijendra.

Deceased Ankit Kumar uncle Harish Kumar said Ankit was the eldest of four siblings at his home in Barsana, Mathura.

“Ankit used to live in a rented accommodation in Techzone and his family, including his parents and three younger siblings, live in Mathura. Ankit earned around ₹14,000 a month and he joined Coforge’s maintenance team about two months ago,” said Harish, who carried out the police formalities in Greater Noida and took the body back to Barsana for final rites.

“The family had taken several debts from moneylenders for their eldest daughter’s wedding. Ankit had switched jobs for a higher salary so that he could repay the debts,” said his distraught uncle.