Pune hoarding collapse: FIR against contractor, workers; two Railways employees held

Two Central Railways (CR) employees, including a junior engineer, were arrested on Saturday in connection with the hoarding frame collapse incident in which four people were killed and five others injured, police said.

The tragic incident took place on Friday afternoon when a 40-feet hoarding metal frame collapsed on vehicles which had stopped at Shahir Amar Shaikh Chowk traffic signal near Pune Railway Station.

Five auto-rickshaws, a two-wheeler and a car were damaged in the collapse.

"We have arrested one Sanjay Singh, a junior engineer of the Central Railways and his assistant, identified as Pandurang Wanare, who works as a 'lohar' (blacksmith) in the Railways in connection with the Friday's incident.

"They have been arrested under the IPC section 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder)," said Jayashree Gaikwad, Assistant Commissioner of Police (Lashkar Division).

The giant hoarding was being dismantled at around 2 pm by a contractor hired by the railways when it came crashing down, Deputy Commissioner of Police B Singh had said.

The deceased were identified as Shamrao Kasar (70), Shamrao Dhotre (48), Shivaji Pardeshi (40) and Javed Khan (40).

On late Friday night, a case was registered against the railway officials, contractor and his workers who had been given the responsibility to dismantle the structure.

A CR official said an inquiry had been initiated into the incident. 

"It was a very unfortunate incident and it occurred while railway was in process of dismantling the advertisement hoarding which was not restrained as per railway norms. To ascertain various aspects of this incident a high-level inquiry has been ordered by Zonal headquarter. Whosoever is responsible will not be spared," Milind Deouskar, Divisional Railway Manager, Pune, said on Friday. 

He further announced an ex-gratia of Rs 5 lakh for the kin of deceased. "We have declared ex-gratia compensation of Rs 5 Lakh for kin of those dead, Rs 1 Lakh for seriously injured and Rs 50 thousand for those who suffered a minor injury. Further whatever it takes to provide the best treatment to injure will be ensured."

(With agencies)