R Udaygiri: Three brothers from Birikote village under Adaba police limits in Gajapati district Saturday died allegedly owing to asphyxiation inside an underground chamber at their house.
The deceased brothers are Bikri Majhi, Sanjeev Majhi and Jitu Majhi.
Family sources said the deceased’s father had asked Sanjeev to get his ATM card from the underground chamber Friday night. A wooden ladder was laid down from the room’s floor to the chamber. Sanjeev went into the chamber to bring the card.
After a while, when Sanjeev did not come up nor responded to his calls, Bikram went down to the chamber to check on Sanjeev. He too did not come out. Seeing his brothers lying unconscious on the ground, Jitu went into the chamber to rescue them. He too collapsed on the ground, near his brothers.
The incident came to fore after their sister noticed them and cried for help. Family members rescued the trio in a critical condition and rushed to Birikote primary health centre (PHC).
Given their critical condition, the doctor at the PHC asked the family members to take them to Mohana community health centre (CHC) where they were pronounced dead on arrival.
Adaba police reached the spot on being informed and sent the bodies for postmortem. A probe into the incident is on.