Delhi building collapse: Boys PG owner, his wife and son held; five MCD officials suspended as seven die

The over 27hour rescue operation at the Satya Niketan building collapse site concluded on Monday evening with seven people dead and five injured The building owner his wife and son were arrested five MCD officials suspended and the Delhi High Court ordered a highlevel inquiry into the incidentThe rescue operation concluded around 510 pm following which all rescue units were withdrawn from the site according to the Delhi Fire Service Twelve people were pulled out of the debris seven of them died and five are undergoing treatment after the fivestorey building housing a boys paying guest accommodation near Delhi Universitys South Campus collapsed around 130 pm on SundayThe Delhi High Court on Monday ordered a highlevel MCD inquiry into the incident and made it clear that the government cannot evade responsibility It termed the incident most unfortunate and said such tragedies are a result of inadequate measures employed by the MCD and other authoritiesPolice arrested building owner 81yearold Hariram a retired Indian Air Force sergeant his 75yearold wife Urmila and 52yearold son Mahesh They have been booked on charges including culpable homicide negligence in the upkeep of a structure and endangering the safety of othersHariram and his son were allegedly running the PG while Urmila was the owner of the property Following the arrests teams are questioning the three to ascertain the cause of the collapse and fix responsibility for the incident a police officer saidChief Minister Rekha Gupta visited the site again on Monday and warned of strict action against officials responsible for the tragedy Within hours of her visit Municipal Corporation of Delhi MCD deputy commissioner of South zone Rakesh Kumar and four engineers were placed under suspensionThe chief minister also directed officials to seal all fivestorey structures in the cityAccording to MCD orders accessed by PTI the other suspended officials are Superintending Engineer Ranvir Singh Executive Engineer Building Lalit Kumar Goel Assistant Engineer Building Sunil Chauhan and Junior Engineer Building Ashish Kumar all from the South ZoneDelhi Lieutenant Governor Taranjit Singh Sandhu chaired a meeting attended by Gupta and top officers emphasising strict enforcement against unsafe buildings and the emergency mechanism under the Delhi Disaster Management AuthorityIn a post on X Sandhu said he directed the Delhi governments Urban Development Minister Ashish Sood to lead a committee of senior officers to explore alternative student accommodation and assess the feasibility of using unutilised DDA housing stock for itThe Lt Governor directed inspection drives in PG hubs especially in houses that have prima facie violated height and floor restrictionsThe MCD also issued an order asking the owner of a building adjacent to the collapsed building to demolish the structure within three days after it was found to be in a ruinous and dangerous conditionThe Delhi Police has identified all seven deceased and the five injuredThe deceased have been identified as Abhishek 20 a student and a resident Sonebhadra in Uttar Pradesh Yuvraj Soni 20 a student and a resident of Durg in Chhattisgarh Pawan 17 a student from Auraiya in Uttar Pradesh Arpit Jahaj 19 a student from Dewas in Madhya Pradesh Akshat Singh Yadav 18 a student hailing from Katni in Madhya Pradesh Surinder Singh 75 a labourer and an unidentified person around around 18The injured are Asgar Ali 30 Neeraj Bawa 19 Aditya Kumar 19 Nitish Chib 19 and Md Ayan 18The All India Institute of Medical Sciences AIIMS said three of the injured Ali Bawa and Kumar were in critical conditionAt the AIIMS trauma Centre families and friends struggled for answers as they tried to find out about their loved ones who were killed or injured in the incidentAkshit 18 a firstyear BCom student had returned to Delhi from his hometown on September 5 His mother identified his body by a mole on his neck and a birthmark on his leg she saidShe said she had checked five or six PGs in the area before choosing this one for him as it had an air conditioner and a washing machine allowing him to focus solely on his studiesChib a secondyear BCom student from Jammu told his brother about what he witnessed moments before the building collapsed According to his brother Chib heard the sound of water rushing and ran to his friends room Before they could make their way downstairs the building collapsedOn Sunday the Delhi government had ordered a magisterial inquiry into the collapseA war of words erupted on Monday between the BJP and the AAP over the building collapse with the two parties accusing each other of having different priorities and not focusing on the victimsThe BJP accused the AAP of spending lavishly on former chief minister Arvind Kejriwals official bungalow alleging that no one has forgotten its love for SheeshmahalThe jibe came in response to a post by the AAP on X accusing Union Home Minister Amit Shah of inaugurating a party office in Goa when the building collapsed in DelhiThe incident has prompted scrutiny of the condition of buildings in the area the role of civic authorities and the circumstances under which repair work was being carried out at the collapsed structureThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever