Six daily-wage workers allegedly died of suffocation while sleeping near a burning tandoor in a closed truck in the early hours of Tuesday at Mall Road in Delhi Cantonment, the police said.
According to the police, the deceased – Amit, Pankaj and Anil, residents of Rudrapur in Uttar Pradesh, Kamal, a Nepalese, and Awadh Lal and Deep Chand from Nangloi — were working with a private catering company.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (Southwest) Shibesh Singh said the police received a call at 1.38 p.m. from the catering company’s supervisor, Nirmal Singh, stating that four men were lying unconscious in the truck.
“When the police reached the spot, they found six men lying inside the vehicle. All of them were rushed to Deen Dayal Upadhyay Hospital. While four of them were declared brought dead, the other two died during treatment,” said the officer.
The police said the deceased used to help in catering at parties and had come to Mall Road on Monday night to prepare for a function on Tuesday. “They had come to the venue after winding up a function on Monday and had carried the tandoor with them. It appears, the tandoor was still burning when they decided to sleep near it,” said a senior police officer.
The police have registered a case under Section 304A (causing death due to negligence) of the IPC.
