A pump operator was found dead hours after being stuck in a pipeline at a sewage treatment station in west Delhi’s Keshavpur area on Thursday. The deceased, identified as Vinay Sirohi, was a contractual Delhi Jal Board employee. His body was recovered by the police on Thursday afternoon.

Sirohi is suspected to have died of suffocation. City water minister Kapil Mishra has ordered a probe into the incident and asked officials to submit a report at the earliest.

According to the police, Sirohi went inside the pipeline around 11.30 am on Wednesday to fix a leak and accidentally slipped into another connected pipeline. His body has been sent for a post-mortem and the report is awaited.

The police said that Sirohi’s family registered a missing complaint with the police on Wednesday, following which the sewage treatment plant was thoroughly searched, but he could not be traced. “We received the call at about 1.30 pm from his mother Seema,” said the police, adding, “When it came to light that he went inside a pipeline, the police checked the entire area for several hours yesterday but could not trace him due to overgrown bushes around it.”

The police added that finally at about 3.30 pm on Thursday Sirohi was found stuck inside the pipeline. The pipe had to be cut open to pull out his body.

A case has been registered under Section 304A (causing death by negligence) of IPC against unknown persons and investigation is underway, said the senior official.

Sirohi lived in west Delhi’s Uttam Nagar area with his wife, mother and younger brother. Preliminary investigation also revealed that he was not wearing any helmet, face mask — to avoid inhalation of poisonous gases like methane and hydrogen sulphide present inside sewage pipelines — or gum boots, the police added.