Jaipur: Three workers asphyxiated in the bleaching vessel of an oil factory meant to reprocess the used lubricant oil in Vishwakarma industrial area on Sunday.

Vishwakarma police station SHO Gyanendra Singh said the incident occurred at Murari Lal Poddar’s Bharat Industrial Oil Corporation around 9.30 am.

He added Gokhu Shah (24) of Bihar became unconscious after inhaling poisonous gas when he entered the bleaching vessel to clean it which was closed since Friday. When another worker Shyam Raj (23), a resident of Mirzapur in Uttar Pradesh saw that Gokhu had become unconscious, he entered the vessel but fell victim to the gas, said the police.

Gopal Patel (24) of Mizapur became the third victim after he too took risk of entering the vessel for help. Ramnarayan and Durgesh two others workers present tried to rescue them but did not enter, said police.

The police said the three were rushed to Sawai Man Singh (SMS) Hospital where they were declared dead.

Ramnarayan Shah, an eyewitness and a co-worker, said the trio remained in the vessel for an hour. Later, they were taken out with the help of local residents.

The police have arrested the plant manager, Pankaj Poddar and another official Deepak Goyal of the company under charges of culpable homicide not amounting to murder, informed the SHO.

Shekhar Patel, Gopal’s brother, alleged that the factory did not have safety devices. “The workers were only provided boots to wear and no oxygen cylinder was provided to the worker for entering the vessel to clean it which resulted in their death,” said Shekhar.

Fire extinguishers were also not available despite the fact that the oil is inflammable, he added.