A 52-year-old man drowned in a well in Jafferkhanpet when he entered it for desilting on Sunday morning.
According to the police, construction worker Murugadoss, a resident of R.V. Nagar, Rangachary Street, and two of his friends went to an apartment complex in Jafferkhanpet to clean a 50 foot well around 9.30 a.m.
After securing himself with a rope, Murugadoss descended into the well. “After a few minutes, his friends heard Murugadoss shouting for help. When they looked inside, they found that he had fallen into the water and was gasping for breath,” said a police officer.
Though his friends tried to pull him up, Murugadoss was unable to hold on to the rope and subsequently drowned before fire and rescure personnel could arrive. His body was later removed by the fire and rescue services and sent to to the Government Royapettah Hospital for post-mortem.
The police have registered a case. According to the autopsy report, Murugadoss had swallowed a lot of water. “Initially, we thought he died due to asphyxiation. But the well is used regularly, so there is no possibility of the presence of any gases inside the well,” said a police officer.
In another incident, a 35-year-old man died while cleaning a septic tank in a house in Puzhal on Saturday.
According to the police, Loganathan and his colleagues were regularly engaged to clean septic tanks in the area. On Saturday, they had gone to a house on Sivaraj Street. While cleaning the tank, Loganathan fell unconscious. He was rushed to a hospital but died on the way.
