Two young men died early on Sunday, September 27, after entering a public toilet near Ram Mandir station in Goregaon East. Police suspect fumes from chemicals that a small electroplating unit next door let into the drain. Bhavin Desai, 18, and Prabhakar Dhanivar, 24, were declared dead at Trauma Care Hospital, the Free Press Journal reported.
What police have said
Desai and Dhanivar belonged to a local Ganpati mandal. After a late meal with six other members in the small hours, the two walked to the toilet block and did not come back. Friends found them unconscious inside, WION reported. The block stands opposite the Parsi Panchayat gate near Mrunaltai bridge.
DCP Gajanan Rajmane said the chemicals leaked from a shop called Sai Electroplate, according to an ANI report. Senior Inspector Abdul Shaikh of Vanrai police station said the unit had discharged chemicals into the drainage line and the fumes spread from there. ANI reported that police detained one person and identified the shop owner as Navinchandra Chawda. Early reports said Vanrai police had registered an accidental death case; later reports said police filed an FIR for culpable homicide against the unit’s owner and staff. Police sealed the unit and the toilet block. Officers from the BMC, the fire brigade and the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) visited the site, and MPCB staff set up a monitor to record air quality there for 24 hours.
Police have not named the chemical. Post-mortem and forensic results are pending, so the exact cause of death remains unconfirmed.
Why a toilet became the danger point
A public toilet block connects straight to the sewer or drain line, and many small blocks in Mumbai have little ventilation. When a trade effluent goes into that line, gases can rise through floor traps into a closed cubicle faster than into open air. Electroplating shops handle acid baths and metal salts, and some processes use cyanide compounds. Mixing the wrong effluents in a drain can release toxic gas. Investigators will have to establish which of these, if any, reached the Goregaon drain.
The case also turns on paperwork. Electroplating is a polluting trade under MPCB rules, and a unit is expected to hold consent to operate and treat its effluent before letting anything into a public drain. Coverage so far does not say whether Sai Electroplate had those permissions, or whether BMC had licensed it to run beside a residential lane and a public toilet. The answers will show whether this was one operator’s lapse or a gap in how the city tracks small workshops in mixed neighbourhoods.
What residents can do
- A sharp, sour or bitter-almond smell near a drain, toilet or gutter is a warning. Step back into open air and keep others out.
- Do not go into a closed space to pull out someone who has collapsed there. Call for help first: 112 for police and ambulance, 101 for the fire brigade. Rescuers without breathing gear often become the next victims in gas incidents.
- Report coloured or foul-smelling discharge from a workshop into a drain to the BMC helpline 1916 and to the MPCB regional office. Note the time and take photos.
What to watch
The forensic report will fix the chemical and decide how strong the culpable-homicide case is. Watch for whether BMC and MPCB follow up with a survey of other plating and polishing units in the Goregaon and Malad industrial pockets, and whether the corporation checks ventilation in public toilet blocks near such units. Both young men had spent the festival with their mandal; their families will look to those follow-ups for answers.
Sources: Free Press Journal, WION, ANI via LatestLY
This report was written with AI assistance from the publicly reported sources linked here; each fact was cross-checked against at least two of them.