Mystery shrouds workers death at ferro alloy plant

The incident took place at 7.45pm in lunch room at ground floor of CFAP (erstwhile MEL). Electrician Pandurang Parsutkar saw his fellow worker Mohan Ghate (56) collapsed in lunch room and rushed to his rescue. Soon after entering the room, he felt dizzy and collapsed even before he could drag Ghate out of the room. Workers alleged that some poisonous gas had leaked from the pipes that passed over the room and workers were affected by the same. They also claimed of three more employees being affected by the gas, but they recovered soon after primary medication. As Ghate and Parsutkar were critical they were rushed to a private hospital. Ghate was declared brought dead, but doctor managed to save seriously sick Parsutkar.
Company management has denied any leakage of gas in the plant. Deputy GM (P&A) PP Chakrabarti said, "Company maintains very high safety standards. There is no possibility of gas leakage at ground level where the incident took place. The pipes carrying gases are located at 15 metres height and hence the lunch room at ground floor could not be infested by any gas."
He speculated that Ghate might have collapsed due to cardiac arrest or some other ailment, while Parsutkar might have collapsed out of shock of seeing his fellow employee unconscious on the floor. "The exact cause of death of the worker could be learnt after the receipt of post-mortem report," Chakrabarti said. He also denied of three more workers collapsing at the scene. He claimed that police, along with several officers and workers visited the lunch room after the incident, but none felt presence of any gas there.
Ailing worker Parsutkar however agreed that there was gas in the room. "I sensed carbon monoxide in the room and felt dizzy. Before I could help Ghate, I fell unconscious," he said at hospital. Executive director of CFAP, GS Gill has ordered probe into the incident. He claimed that there would be two tier inquiries into the incident. "While the officer of the CFAP would investigate into the matter and report to the higher-ups. An investigation team from Ranchi office of SAIL would also visit the plant to inquire into the case," he said.