Deceased Delhi sanitation worker's wife demands murder charge against PWD officials

New Delhi: The wife of a sanitation worker who died while cleaning a sewer in a government hospital stopped authorities from conducting a post mortem on Monday, saying she will not allow it unless the erring PWD officials are booked for murder. Geeta, wife of deceased Rishi Pal, 40, said that the Public Works Department’s Junior Engineer and Assistant Engineer should be booked for murder as they sent her husband inside the manhole without an oxygen mask and other safety equipment. [caption id=“attachment_3902405” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. CNN-News18[/caption] “You cannot bring back my husband but at least get me justice. They sent my husband down the manhole without the oxygen mask while knowing about the toxic gases,” she told hospital officials who pleaded with her to let the autopsy be done. Pal’s family demanded Rs 10 lakh compensation and a job for Pal’s son. “He was the only earning member in the family and there is no one to take care of them now. The least the government can do is to compensate them with enough money and jobs for his children,” Pal’s nephew told IANS. Pal died on Sunday while cleaning a sewer at the Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Hospital. Three others with him fell ill. A police official told IANS that an FIR has been filed on charges of culpable homicide not amounting to murder. This was the tenth such death of a sanitation worker in a span of just over a month. On 12 August, two brothers suffocated to death while cleaning a septic pit at a mall in east Delhi, on 6 August, three died while cleaning a sewer in south Delhi and on 15 July, four died when they entered a water harvesting tank in south Delhi. In all the cases, there was no safety equipment for workers.