NEW DELHI: The Noida police on Friday arrested the second accused contractor in connection with the wall collapse that happened on September 20 that led to the death of four construction workers, officials said.
The police had earlier on Tuesday evening arrested Gul Mohammed, a sub-contractor who had supplied labourers for the repair of a drain outside the Jal Vayu Vihar group housing society in Sector 21.
“Accused Sundar Yadav has been arrested. He was supervising the repair work and was present at the spot at the time of the incident but had gone at large after the wall collapsed,” Assistant Commissioner of Police (Noida 1) Rajnish Verma said.
Yadav’s brother Arjun Yadav was the main contractor for the job. After the wall collapsed on Tuesday morning, burying a dozen workers and killing four of them, Sundar Yadav had fled the spot and had been hiding in different locations in Delhi, Gurgaon and Ghaziabad, the police officer said.
“During initial inquiry after his arrest, Yadav has revealed some information to the police and names of some more people have come to light. The role of these people is now under scanner in connection with the probe into the case,” Verma said.
The repair work was being carried out by the contractors hired by the Noida Authority, which has separately launched a probe into the case amid claims by surviving workers that they had cautioned the contractors of the weak structure but were told to continue the work.
A First Information Report (FIR) was lodged in the case at the local Sector 20 police station under Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder), 337 (doing any act so rashly or negligently as to endanger human life or the personal safety of others), 338 (causing grievous hurt by act endangering life or personal safety of others).
Charges under the law prohibiting child labour were also invoked in the case, the officials said.