Meerut: A case of murder was lodged against Rashid Akhlaq, brother of former BSP MP Sahid Akhlaq and an unidentified manager of the firm Al-Yasir Pvt Ltd. Three labourers — Jogendra (22), Guddu (18) and Ajay (26) — had succumbed to poisonous gas during cleaning of a septic tank at a meat processing unit owned by Rashid on Thursday evening.An FIR under section 302 (murder) of the Indian Penal code was lodged at Kharkhauda police station on Friday following a complaint by the families of the victims. No arrests have been made so far, police said.The meat processing unit was shut down following the crackdown by the Yogi government on illegal slaughter houses last year. Police officers said that the fodder unit was different from the meat processing plant and a probe is under way to establish the status and clearances for the fodder plant.A contractor, Satveer, was tasked with cleaning the tank on Wednesday. The tragedy happened on Thursday evening when Jitendra, a labourer from Bijauli village stepped into the tank as a part of the cleaning process.“The septic tank stored blood and animal remains which were used to manufacture chicken fodder. The labourers came in contact with toxic gases leaking from the tank and went unconscious. They were rushed to a nearby hospital where they were declared brought dead," Rajesh Kumar, superintendent of police (rural) said.Post-mortem report claimed asphyxiation as cause of death for all the three victims, ruling out foul play.Meanwhile, aggrieved families of the victims and other agitating locals created a ruckus and blocked Hapur road late on Thursday evening. Local police and senior officials pacified the relatives of the victims, following which roads were cleared.

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