The victims, Umakrishnan Durai and Pandyan Theludurai, entered the manhole on Thursday morning and inhaled the poisonous fumes while working.
"There was no response from inside for sometime, following which another labourer went inside the manhole searching for them. Due to the gas, he immediately came out," Inspector R L Kurkarni at Kalachowkey Police Station said.
With the help of fire brigade men, the two were later brought out and rushed to civic run KEM hospital but they were declared dead before admission, he added. Ashok Choudhary (25), supervising the desilting work, was arrested under Section 304 (a)(Causing death by negligence) of the IPC, police said. The city civic body has undertaken desilting of several drains and gutters across the city ahead of monsoon season.
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