Maharashtra: Sugar factory worker hospitalised after suffocation dies

One of the 12 sugar factory workers, who were hospitalized on Saturday after they complained of suffocation while cleaning a vacuum pan in a Baramati-based sugar factory, died on Sunday, police said.

On Saturday morning, when workers were cleaning the pan, a gas got released from it.

Some workers who had entered the pan felt suffocated and nauseating, a company official earlier said.

One of the workers, identified as Shivaji Bhosale, who was admitted to the ICU of a private hospital here, died on Sunday morning, a police official said.

"Five to six workers were involved in the cleaning activity inside a vacuum pan at the factory when a gasemanated and they felt suffocated," Vijay Wable, managing director of Malegaon Sugar Factory, which is located in Baramati, said on Saturday.

The workers then called their colleagues for help. The condition of one more worker was critical, while the 10 others were stable, Wable earlier said.

A vacuum pan is a tank with a vacuum pump for rapid evaporation and condensation (as of sugar syrup) by boiling at a low temperature.