The Perambalur Police have arrested three persons, including the owner of a farm and a licensed explosives dealer, in connection with the death of a fireman who died of suffocation while trying to rescue a couple of labourers trapped inside an open well in Selliampalayam village near Perambalur Town on Sunday. One of labourers too, died in the incident.
The case, which was initially booked under section 174 of the Code of Criminal Procedure following the death of the fireman R. Rajkumar and the labourer, R. Radhakrishnan, has now been altered and booked under IPC section 304 (ii) (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) read with sections 3 and 6 of the Explosive Substances Act.
Those arrested were V. Murugesan, the owner of the farm where the well was dug; D. Ashokan (50), a licensed explosives dealer of Siruvachur, and T. Lakshmanan (42) of Pudukudi, who had placed the explosives inside a borewell adjoining the well. The three were arrested on Monday night by the Perambalur Police. They were remanded to judicial custody and lodged at the sub jail in Jayamkondan in Ariyalur district.
Police sources said Murugesan of Selliampalayam had dug the well to a depth of nearly 60 feet but it did not yield much water. He subsequently sunk a borewell adjoining the open well to a depth of around 300 feet . As there was no groundwater even at that depth, Murugesan bought explosives from Ashokan and asked Lakshmanan to place them inside the borewell sunk adjoining the well and blast the rocks. Sources said Lakshmanan did not have the mandatory licence required to handle explosives. Murugesan too, had not obtained permission from the Revenue authorities for using explosive substances. Noxious fumes caused by the explosion had apparently remained trapped inside the open well.
The two labourers, Radhakrishnan and Bhaskar who went inside the well on Sunday evening to check the water level, had suffocated, prompting the villagers to alert the fire-fighters of Perambalur station.
A team of fire-fighters including fireman Rajkumar rushed to the spot and managed to rescue Bhaskar from the well. However, tragedy struck, when Rajkumar went inside the well to rescue Radhakrishnan. Rajkumar and Radhakrishnan became unconscious after inhaling the noxious fumes and were pulled out with great difficulty. They were rushed to the Government Hospital in Perambalur but were declared brought dead.
