On February 10, a portion of the sixth floor of Chintels Paradiso building in Gurgaon had collapsed onto the first floor, leading to the death of two people. (File) The Central Bureau of Investigation Wednesday arrested a Jamia Millia Islamia professor in a case of alleged bribery. CBI sources claimed the professor, Khalid Momin, worked in the Department of Civil Engineering at the university and had given a structural safety certificate to the Chintels Paradiso building in Gurgaon, part of which collapsed recently.
“A case was registered against the accused on the allegations that the said Professor, in conspiracy with the representatives of different private builders, architect, middleman, etc, was indulging in different activities for issuing structural stability certificates for the projects after taking bribes,” the CBI said in a statement.
CBI sources said that based on information that the professor had allegedly accepted a bribe to give a structural safety certificate to a building, the agency laid a trap and arrested him along with two other people, who were giving the bribe. The alleged bribe amount caught during the operation was Rs 1 lakh.
The two others accused in the case have been identified as Prakhar Pawar and Abid Khan, both working with Vyom Architects in Okhla. The agency is currently carrying out searches at the premises of the accused.
On February 10, a portion of the sixth floor of Chintels Paradiso building in Gurgaon had collapsed onto the first floor, leading to the death of two people. The Haryana police has registered two separate FIRs in the matter.
“The professor had given a structural safety certificate to the building a few years back and then renewed the same recently,” claimed a CBI official.
In one of the Haryana police FIRs, based on a complaint from the district town planner, it has been stated that the mishap has proved that the certificate of the structural engineer and proof consultant and work of the contractor “is not creditworthy and rather fraudulent”.
The building had seen issues earlier too. In July 2021, a slab of a roof in a balcony had collapsed at tower H. After complaints by residents, a structural audit was conducted by the developer under the supervision of the Department of Town and Country Planning. One of the conclusions of the audit, conducted by a private consultant, was that the building towers were “safe for human habitation”.
This audit was, however, conducted by a private company, SGR Engineering, to check “distresses in structure and structural elements like column beams, slabs, brick walls, balconies, etc.” The audit had concluded in September that year that “overall the structural members like columns, beams, lift walls and slabs seem good, which is the main part of building transferring the loads to the foundation”.
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