Dupatta stuck in conveyor belt, woman loses life at Aavin plant
A probe revealed that Umarani's dupatta got stuck and she was pulled into the machine by her hair. Though co-workers rushed on hearing her screams, it was too late by then
K Umarani
CHENNAI: A 30-year-old woman contract staff died in a freak accident at Aavin's Kakkalur dairy plant in Tiruvallur district in which her head got severed after her dupatta got stuck in the conveyor belt and she got pulled into the machine.
Tiruvallur district police said they arrested the plant supervisor on charges of death due to negligence on Wednesday. The deceased was identified as K Umarani, hailing from Bommiampatti in Salem district, who started working there about six months ago.
The accident happened around 10 pm, police said. Umarani was assigned duty at the packing section where she would have to take the milk packets from the conveyor belt and put them in the trays. Investigations revealed that after her dupatta got stuck, she was pulled in and her hair got stuck too. Hearing the screams, the co-workers rushed, but it was too late by then as Umarani's head got decapitated and was lying on the plant floor.
Tiruvallur Taluk police rushed to the scene recovered the body and sent it to the government hospital for a postmortem. On Wednesday, the police arrested plant supervisor Varun Kumar under the charges of death due to negligence. He was produced before a magistrate and remanded in judicial custody.
Thiruvallur Taluk police will be conducting further investigations with the contractor who hired the staff. Leader of Opposition Edappadi K Palaniswamy expressed condolences to the victim's family and sought safe industrial practices.
"The management should have ensured the safety of dairy workers working on dangerous machinery. But under this DMK regime, there is no protection for workers, be it at firecracker units or dairy farms," Palaniswamy posted on social media and urged the Chief Minister to provide appropriate relief to the family of the deceased and ensure such incidents do not happen again.
This is the second industrial accident in Kakkalur in recent times. About three months ago, four persons were killed after a major fire broke out at a paint factory in Kakkalur Industrial estate.