- Junior engineer drank water allegedly mixed with urine at a government office in Odisha
- Lab tests found high ammonia levels, indicating urine contamination
- Peon taken into custody, police investigating the incident's motive
A junior engineer was working in inadequate light and under immense pressure when he unassumingly took a sip from the water bottle brought by his peon. It later turned out that the peon had allegedly mixed urine in the water given to him.
The incident occurred on July 23, when both were working till late hours in the Rural Water Supply and Sanitation (RWSS) Department's office in Odisha's Gajapati. Shortly after drinking the water, the official fell ill. On smelling and seeing the liquid carefully, he realised it was contaminated. He was then hospitalised for treatment.
After recovering, the junior engineer lodged a formal complaint, following which laboratory tests later confirmed unusually high levels of ammonia in the sample, suggesting serious contamination. "The high levels of ammonia establish that it was urine. I have filed an FIR with the police. I want a full investigation. I feel humiliated," the engineer told reporters.
The official also claimed that two other staff members who shared the water from the bottle also complained about its taste and quality.
The accused peon was then taken into police custody and are probing the motive behind the incident.
The peon insisted that he had taken the water from a purifier machine, kept the bottle in the engineer's room and had no idea what happened thereafter, per a report by news agency PTI.
With inputs from Dev Kumar Ghosh
