Retired armyman, 2 sons choke to death in bid to clear domestic drain

ROHTAK: A routine attempt to unblock a domestic drain at Majra village in Haryana's Rohtak district turned tragic Wednesday when a retired Army man and two of his sons died inside a clogged sewer manhole. The deceased were Mahabir Singh and his sons Lakshman and Deepak.According to Mahabir's wife, Santosh Devi, a household drain had been backing up for days. Lakshman, who worked at a motorcycle-repair shop, lifted the manhole cover outside the house to investigate and slipped in. Mahabir immediately descended to rescue him but failed to re-emerge. Deepak, employed at a private firm in Rohtak, then entered the sewer in a final effort to save both, but all three succumbed, apparently to toxic gases. DSP Ravi Khundia called the accident "deeply unfortunate" & confirmed that postmortems were underway even as no formal complaint had been filed yet.