Delhi collapse toll rises to six as police arrest the building owner alongside three contractors

Hauz Qazi police registered the case against all four on Nov. 5, invoking sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita that cover culpable homicide not amounting to murder, negligent conduct in demolishing or repairing buildings, endangering the lives of others and common intention, PTI reported. These are accusations that no court has tested. Police say the work was illegal and the building unsafe. Most of the dead came from Bihar, according to police.

A preliminary report by the Municipal Corporation of Delhi, quoted by ThePrint, says the city warned the owner on April 28 that the building was dilapidated and told him to strengthen it under an empanelled structural engineer and file a stability certificate. The advisory stated it was not permission to rebuild. Delhi Police flagged unauthorized work on June 15, and an inspection then found repairs under way. The report says the owner instead put up new second and third floors without permission, and that shuttering under the third-floor lintel was removed in a hurry, apparently for fear the work would be stopped, before the collapse. An MCD official told PTI that no building plan had been sanctioned and that the slab material had not set.

Two MCD engineers, one junior and one assistant, are suspended, and the city is surveying neighboring buildings. Police said 10 to 15 workers were on site when the building fell. On Nov. 7, in a separate case in Sikri village near Modinagar, in Ghaziabad district, shuttering failed during a concrete pour for a house roof, killing one worker and injuring five, ETV Bharat reported, citing police.