HYDERABAD: Five persons, including the builder and owner of Rize Constructions, were arrested and sent to remand in connection with the wall collapse that killed seven migrant labourers in Bachupally on Tuesday.
The accused were identified as Venkanna Aravind Reddy (the project builder and owner of Rize Constructions), Murugesan Sathish Kumar (site engineer), Mariya Francis Xavier Raj (project manager) and two contractors, Dhadiyala Rajesh and Allu Ram Reddy.
Earlier on Tuesday, notwithstanding the heavy rains, a 30-feet retaining wall at an under-construction site in Bachupally collapsed onto the labour shed camps set up close to the wall and killed seven persons, including a four-year-old, and injured seven others.
The Bachupally police highlighted that the incident was caused due to the negligence of the builder.
Built improperly: ACP
Noting that the wall was built only two days before the rains, Kukatpally Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) K Srinivas Rao told TNIE, “They constructed the wall with ready mix concrete, which should normally be fine. However, for a wall that is 30–40 feet tall, they should have built a support like a rod or a pillar. But there was no support, it was a single line-up build.”
The wall was constructed close to the labour camps, in what the police say is “less than one to three feet distance”. So when the walls collapsed, it fell on seven of the labour sheds and caused the incident.
The assistant commissioner of police said that while the project manager and the site engineer had the relevant permits, the builder did not have any.
Meanwhile, the Labour department is looking into the possible violation of labour policies and announced that they will be giving a compensation of Rs 80,000 to the families of the victims. The government, on their behalf, is also expected to grant an ex gratia to the victims’ families. However, the details of the same are yet to be known.