OLD GOA: In a major twist to the Shell Top Inn mishap, the wife of a deceased worker has claimed that her husband and three other workers were struggling for their lives inside the septic tank for over an hour.
Arti , wife of Chandru Naik from Dandeli, also alleged that nobody had helped them even after she had begged with the other staff and the supervisor at the hotel.
Narrating the incident, Arti, who works at the hotel as a sweeper-cum-helper and also cooks food for the hotel staff, informed the media persons that the supervisor, Keshav Kunkolkar, had forced the four workers to undertake the cleaning of the hotel’s sewage tank as he said that there was a problem with the suction pump.
“The four initially refused to do the work and told the supervisor that they
are working as room boys and it was not their job to clean the tank ,” Naik informed. “This infuriated the supervisor who then said that he would call up Baba (owner of the hotel) if they refused to do the work.”
“Afraid that action would be taken against them, the four reluctantly entered the tank and all of them started struggling inside it,” she informed.
“I immediately called up the supervisor and the other staff members to help the four workers but nobody listened to my pleas,” Naik said. “It was only after an hour had passed that the police and the fire officials arrived and removed them .”
To a query, Naik said the incident had taken place sometime around 11 to 11.30 am when the four workers began struggling inside the tank, while the fire officials arrived at about 12.30 noon.
When asked if she had narrated the incident to the police, Naik said: “The police never questioned me.”
Meanwhile, the Old Goa police said that Arti never mentioned about the incident to the police and maintained that the incident had occurred between 12 and 12.30 noon.
