Nangloi market, lanes mourn death of pickle factory owner, son; units shut, quiet behind rusted locks | Delhi News
3 min readNew DelhiMar 9, 2026 04:15 AM IST
On Sundays, the streets of Rao Vihar in Outer Delhi’s Nangloi usually teem with locals flocking to the weekly market. The biggest draw is always the pickles and long queues are a common sight, with people eager to grab a Rs-200 deal, a steal compared to branded jars.
This Sunday, however, most of the pickle stalls were shut while the small pickle factories sat behind rusted locks. The neighbourhood had a grim reason to go quiet.
Just a few hundred metres from the bustling market stalls, stands a unit tucked inside a residential building. On Saturday evening, it witnessed a double tragedy. The owner, 60-year-old Anil, and his 32-year-old son, Neeraj, died after falling into a 10-foot fermentation well.
In Nangloi, the craft of pickling still follows age-old traditions. Large, deep wells are used for months-long fermentation processes.
According to the police, Anil and Neeraj were trying to save a labourer who fell unconscious after entering the well. Police said there were four to five such wells in the factory.
The men were eventually pulled out by Anil’s brother, Subhash, with the help of local residents. While the labourer survived, Anil and his son did not.
“This is such a hard time for all of us. It’s very difficult. Only we know what we are going through. I hope no one has to go through this ever. I would not wish this sadness upon my worst enemy,” Subhash said as he teared up. Anil’s relatives were seen outside their residence Sunday, staring at the locked factory.
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Anil’s pickles were a favourite in Rao Vihar for decades.
In the locality, The Indian Express saw at least four such pickle manufacturing factories. As per police sources, there are no machineries and about a dozen are employed in these units who do everything manually.
In front of one such factory resides 50-year-old Bhagwant Prajapati. “I’ve been living here for almost two decades. I have stopped eating pickles. I sometimes take a look inside. The conditions here are so unhygienic. The smell at night is pungent. But we have gotten used to it now,” he said.
“There are two other small factories in this lane. Earlier, I couldn’t sleep at night due to the noise,” Prajapati added.
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According to sources, police are yet to ascertain what led to the deaths and are awaiting the post-mortem and viscera reports. They said prima facie, it is suspected that the men had inhaled some gas inside the well.
On any other Sunday, shopkeepers would be seen restocking. This week, most shutters stayed down and the few who opened shops hardly got any customer.
“This is very unfortunate. Par honi ko kaun rok sakta hai? Inke saath saalo se deal kar rahe the hum (Who can stop what is destined to happen? I had been doing business with them for years),” said one of the shopkeepers.
