MUMBAI: The police on Saturday booked 15 people including developers, contractors and site engineers after at least 15 labourers, including four children and a woman, died when a portion of a 22-ft high compound wall of a housing society collapsed on adjoining shanties following rains, trapping the sleeping families under the debris at Kondhwa in Pune.
The retaining wall of Alcon Stylus housing society in Kondhwa collapsed post-midnight Saturday on the shanties set up at an adjacent construction site. Rescue operators had pulled out 15 bodies by morning while two injured have been admitted to Sassoon Hospital, police said.
Developers of Alcon Stylus housing society, Jagdish Agrawal, Rajesh Agrawal, Sachin Agrawal, Vivek Agrawal and Vipul Agrawal, were booked along with the site engineer, contractor and supervisor for culpable homicide not amounting to murder (304) and common intention (34) of the IPC.
The adjoining construction site’s developers, Pankaj Vora, Suresh Shah and Rashmikant Gandhi, were also named in the FIR along with the site engineer, contractor and supervisor, police officials from the Kondhwa police station said adding that no arrests have been made as yet.
Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadnavis had ordered an “in-depth inquiry” into the incident even as the authorities hinted at several irregularities and inferior construction behind the incident. Fadnavis also announced an ex-gratia of Rs 5 lakh for the kin of deceased and Rs 25,000 for the injured.
Pune district collector Naval Kishor Ram said a five-member committee is constituted to inquire into the incident and action would be taken once the committee submits its report. “Prima facie, it seems that the builder is at fault. We will conduct a detailed inquiry,” Ram said.
Ex-gratia
The incident took place between 1.30 am and 1.45 am at Kondhwa. The victims were mostly from Bihar. Bihar CM Nitish Kumar has announced ex-gratia of D2 lakh to the families of each of the deceased.