Thane, 4 April

Police have registered a case against some unidentified persons for allegedly rioting and damaging dumpers following the death of a woman after she got stuck in an excavator during garbage segregation work in Maharashtra's Thane recently, officials said.

The driver of the excavator was also booked for causing the woman's death, they said.

The woman died on 31 March at the garbage segregation centre at C P Talao in the city.

'The tragedy occurred when around 50 women were segregating waste in a prohibited area of the transfer station. Rajashri Jadhav, who was one of the women, was hit by a dumper vehicle due to which she got stuck in an excavator,' an official from the Wagle Estate police station said.

The operator of the heavy-duty machine allegedly picked her body with the excavator bucket and threw it into the dumper, resulting in fatal injuries to her. The death of the woman triggered outrage among those present at the site, he said.

A group of around eight unidentified persons hurled stones at dumpers and spraying machines at the waste segregation facility. A total of 14 dumpers were damaged in the violence, he added.

Based on a complaint filed by a sanitary inspector from Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC), an FIR was registered on April 2 under sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), including 189(2) (unlawful assembly), 190 (common object of unlawful assembly), 191(1), (2) (rioting) and others. Sections of the Prevention of Destruction and Loss of Property Act were also invoked, he said.

A case was also registered against the excavator driver Mohammad Sanaullah Farooque under section 106 (causing death by negligence) of the BNS at the Shrinagar police station in connection with the woman's death.