HYDERABAD: Ram Yadav, aged 34, and his wife Gitabal, 32, arrived in Hyderabad to work as construction labourers at Renuka Yellamma Colony in Bachupally. Along with them was their four-year-old younger son, Himanshu. The family hailed from Chhattisgarh and had moved into a temporary accommodation at the construction site on May 5, days before the building’s 30-feet-tall retaining wall collapsed on their sheds. The incident led to the death of the trio, four others, and injured seven more, on Tuesday night.
“All of them were migrant labourers, hailing from Chhattisgarh, Odisha and Maharashtra,” said Kukatpally ACP K Srinivas Rao and added that the injured persons are currently undergoing treatment.
The deceased victims include Ram Yadav, Gitabal, Himanshu, Tirupathi, 23, Sankar Deb Goud, 18, Bindresh Bhavani Chauhan, 30, and Khushi, 20.
Rains hamper rescue ops
It was around 6.30 pm when the police were alerted about the wall collapse. “Heavy rains deterred the rescue operations and it was only around 10.30 pm when we could effectively work on rescue and recovery,” said Balanagar DCP T Srinivasa Rao. By 3 am, all the bodies were recovered and sent to Gandhi Hospital.
Ram Yadav’s relatives, some of whom also reside in Hyderabad, shared that he was survived by his elder son, who is aged about eight years and resides in Chhattisgarh. “He is intellectually disabled and so, the couple had left him behind with the boy’s grandparents,” Ram’s relative, who stays in Kokapet, said.
“As it was raining heavily, the family was confined to their room and all the members were sleeping when the wall collapsed on them,” shared another migrant labourer.
Case against builder, four contractors in police custody
The police have booked a case against Aravind Reddy, the builder under Section 304 (2) of the IPC (culpable homicide not amounting to murder). “We have taken four contractors into custody and are investigating to find whether or not they had taken the necessary building permits,” the DCP said.
The nephew of Tirupathi, one of the victims, said, “The contractor should not have built the workers’ shed so close to a wall so weak; it is a crime.” Tirupathi hailed from Odisha and was one of the seven victims; he was working at the construction site for the past three months.
Upon learning about Tirupathi’s death, his relatives travelled about 700 km to reach Hyderabad only to be worried about the transportation of his body back to their home.
“First, we get calls from several numbers claiming to be government officials and asking for his Aadhaar card so that we will be given compensation, then we find trouble with the transportation of the body,” the victim’s nephew shared.
Ram Yadav’s relatives said, “Police say they have arrested the contractor and that we will be given compensation, but when? We are migrant workers and need money for immediate expenses but nobody would look into how we will get money for transporting the body to our village.
Rs 80K compensation; builder did not have licence
Meanwhile, Rangareddy Joint Commissioner of Labour department L Chaturvedi announced that the families of the victims will be awarded Rs 80,000 as compensation. Sources from the department told TNIE, “We also found that Aravind does not have an official contractor licence and we are investigating that matter.”