Faridabad(PTI): Four sanitation workers died of suffocation after inhaling toxic gases while cleaning the underground sewer of a Faridabad hospital on Wednesday afternoon, police said.

Rohit, his brother Ravi, Vishal and Ravi Goldar, residents of Sanjay Camp in Delhi's Dakshinpuri, had come to the QRG Hospital in Faridabad Sector 16 for sewer cleaning through an agency named Santosh Allied Service, they said.

"The four had entered the manhole without any safety equipment to clean. During this, they suffocated after inhaling poisonous gases and fell unconscious. When they cried for help, their colleagues and hospital staff reached the spot. All four were taken out and admitted to the hospital," ACP, Central, Mohinder Verma said.

"Soon after, the doctors declared all four dead. We are investigating the matter," he added.

The police have kept the bodies at the mortuary of Badshah Khan Hospital. Their families have been informed, the official said. The police said the victims used to come to the hospital every month for work.

Distancing itself from the entire episode, the hospital management said the agency engaged for sewer cleaning services was responsible for the incident

"Strictest action will be taken against those found responsible," Verma added.

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Mumbai (PTI): The Bombay High Court on Thursday granted bail to consultant Chetan Patil arrested in connection with the collapse of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj''s statue at Rajkot fort in Malvan in August.

A 35-foot statue of the iconic Maratha warrior king collapsed in Sindhudurg district on August 26, nearly nine months after Prime Minister Narendra Modi unveiled it on Navy Day.

Patil was arrested on August 30 from Kolhapur.

A single bench of Justice A S Kilor on Thursday held that no case was made out to implicate Patil in the case as he had not been appointed as the structural designer of the statue.

The bench further said Patil had only submitted a structural stability report of the pedestal of the statue and the pedestal was intact even after the collapse.

Another accused, Jaydeep Apte, who was the sculptor and contractor, was also arrested in the case. The HC said it would hear his bail plea on November 25.

The Sindhudurg police had registered an FIR under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita for negligence and other offences last month against Apte and Patil for the statue's collapse.

Patil and Apte moved HC seeking bail after a sessions court rejected their pleas.