Bengaluru: The investigation into the deaths of two workers at the Balagere Sewage Treatment Plant (STP) has taken a significant turn, with a Bengaluru Rural court permitting police to invoke provisions of the Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and Their Rehabilitation Act, 2013, against the accused company and contractor.According to the order passed by the II Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM), Bengaluru Rural district, investigators informed the court that the company and contractor had allegedly violated prescribed guidelines and made workers, Akilan and Akhilesh, work in the wet-well coarse screen gate area of the STP. Police contended that the workers subsequently fell into the system and died, necessitating the addition of Sections 7, 8 and 9 of the Act.The order marks a shift in the nature of the investigation, which initially was being probed as a case involving negligence. The addition of provisions under the 2013 Act raises questions about whether the workers were assigned hazardous cleaning work banned under law.In a parallel development, the court also permitted the collection of blood samples from relatives for DNA examination.The Balagere STP tragedy had claimed the lives of Akilan, a mechanical supervisor from Tamil Nadu, and Akhilesh, a worker from Bihar. While Akilan’s body was recovered earlier, investigators have been relying on forensic procedures to identify the remains recovered during the prolonged search operation for Akhilesh.
