Two days after a four-storey under-construction building collapsed in Gurgaon’s Ullahwas village, killing seven, police have arrested the owner of the structure. The contractor, who was also named in the FIR and has been identified, is absconding.
“The building owner, Dayaram, was arrested last night near Ullahwas village while he was waiting for a person, who was allegedly trying to help him evade arrest. He has confessed to hiding at the homes of various acquaintances,” said inspector Satbir Singh, SHO of the Sector 65 police station.
Dayaram was produced in court Saturday afternoon and remanded in 14-day judicial custody. “The contractor, Raju, hails from Madhya Pradesh but was residing in Ullahwas village. He is absconding. We are conducting investigations to trace him,” said the SHO.
The incident took place around 5 am on Thursday, when the four-storey structure came crumbling down. Search and rescue operations were conducted until 3 am on Friday, with personnel from the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), State Disaster Response Force (SDRF), civil defence, Gurgaon police and fire department participating in the efforts.
Sub-divisional magistrate Sanjiv Singla, who conducted the magisterial enquiry, had said, “This building fell under Lal Dora area, so no bylaws as such were applicable. However, constructing a four-storey building on land like this, without any technical consultation or expertise, is gross negligence on part of the owner as well as the gram panchayat that allowed the construction. The structure seems to have been unstable and technically unsafe.”
The FIR in the matter was registered on the complaint of Jogendra Singh, the father of one of the victims. He was on night duty as a security guard when the structure collapsed.
“Two floors of the house had been constructed earlier, and were in a bad condition. Even then the owner had allowed work for constructing two more floors. The owner and contractor used inferior quality of material for the upper two floors…,” Singh stated in the complaint.
Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar has announced a compensation of Rs 3 lakh for the families of the dead.
