Delhi police will file the chargesheet against the hotel staff within a week. (Representational)
Delhi Police has framed charges against five employees of Vivanta Ambassador hotel and the managers of a firm involved in running the hotel's sewage treatment plant, where three men died after inhaling toxic gases, sources said.
Police said the chargesheet will be filed under the charges of punishment for culpable homicide not amounting to murder, attempt to commit culpable homicide, and under the relevant sections of Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act and Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.
Among the accused are two directors of Eco Pollutech Engineers, the company running the sewage plant. Three others, named in the chargesheet, are employees of the hotel - its chief engineer, manager and director, the sources said.
The hotel employees have been charged for culpable homicide not amounting to murder and attempt to commit culpable homicide. The Eco Pollutech Engineers directors have been charged with all the sections listed above.
The chargesheet, which runs into 20 pages, says the men, who had entered the hotel's sewage treatment plant were not given any safety gear.
Police have written to the Delhi Pollution Control Committee, seeking details of the inspection it had conducted at the sewage plant and whether the plant had due approvals. The answer is still awaited.
Five men were trapped inside the sewage plant and inhaled poisonous gases on April 29.
Two of them-Vikram Singh, a 26-year-old contractual security guard and Ravindra , a contractual maintenance staff at the sewer plant run by Eco Pollutech Engineers, died on May 1. Gaurav Sukheja, a 34-year-old deputy chief engineer of the hotel in Lutyens' Delhi died at a city hospital on May 4.
Two others, Nityanand, a 51-year-old member of the plumbing staff at the hotel, and Kamdev Patra, a 58-year-old contractual maintenance staff of Eco Pollutech Engineers, were injured. He is still in a hospital.
"Two pipes - one for food intake and the other for breathing were inserted. The pipes have been removed but he still has internal injuries and is still unable to talk," police said.
A Vivanta Ambassador hotel spokesperson, "We have no information on the said query (chargesheet) from authorities. We continue to adhere to the highest standards of safety and compliance."
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