Toll in Old Delhi's Chawri Bazar building collapse rises to 3 as another body pulled out

The body of a 40-year-old man was recovered from the debris of the collapsed building in Old Delhi’s Hauz Qazi in the early hours of Saturday, taking the death toll in the incident to three, police said. NDRF rescue team at the building collapse site in Seesh Mahal area in Chawri Bazar, Delhi.

(Sonu Mehta/ Hindustan Times)The deceased was identified as Pankaj Sharma, a resident of Hanuman Nagar village in Bihar’s Khagaria district, deputy commissioner of police (central) Rohit Rajbir Singh said. With the latest recovery, five people have now been pulled out of the debris, including three who died and two who sustained injuries.

Both injured workers have received medical treatment and are stable, officials said. Rescue operations were continuing at the site at the time of filing this report. The recovery comes two days after a three-storey building under construction collapsed in the narrow lanes of Chawri Bazar on Thursday morning, trapping construction workers under the debris.

The building, located in Gali Sitara near Chawri Bazar Metro station, reportedly collapsed in two stages around 9.30am while construction work was underway. The collapse has also raised questions about alleged negligence during construction, with the police arresting three contractors in the early hours of Friday.

The contractors allegedly ignored repeated warnings from workers about the poor quality of the construction materials and the structure's inability to support another concrete slab, according to the first information report (FIR) registered in the case.

DCP Singh identified the accused as Siraj, Tajuddin and Furkan, all residents of the Ajmeri Gate area. They were arrested from Sirohi village in Faridabad's Dauj tehsil. In his complaint to the police, Firoz, a 37-year-old construction worker from Bihar who lives in Mandawali and survived the collapse, alleged that the contractors repeatedly disregarded workers' concerns about the building's structural stability.

According to his statement, he and other workers had been engaged by the contractors to carry out construction on a plot measuring around 70 square yards. Three concrete slabs, locally referred to as lanterns, had already been laid at the property.

The workers allegedly warned that the existing slab was not strong enough to support another slab and that it required additional cement and wooden support. “We had informed the contractors that the lintel had not dried up and we cannot put another one...

to support the lintel, more cement and wood is required... but they asked us to continue, saying that the cost would increase,” Firoz said in the FIR, a copy of which was accessed by HT. Firoz also told the police that they had attempted to raise their concerns with the property owners.

However, the owners allegedly told them that the contractors were handling the construction and that they should approach the contractors instead. Around 9.30am on Thursday, Firoz and the other workers were carrying out construction when the building suddenly gave way.

Two of his fellow workers were trapped under the debris, while he was working in the rear portion of the structure and managed to survive. The FIR names Tajuddin and Furkan as accused and invokes sections 105 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder), 290 (negligent conduct with respect to pulling down, repairing or constructing buildings), 125(a) (negligent act with respect to buildings) and 3(5) (common intention) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS).

The collapse has also brought renewed scrutiny on the civic authorities, particularly after it emerged that Delhi Police had alerted the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) about construction activity at the property nearly five months before the incident.

In a letter dated June 15, the station house officer of Hauz Qazi police station had alerted the deputy commissioner of MCD's City SP Zone about new residential construction spread over around 70 square yards at property number 4547-48 in Wali Sheesh Mahal, Ajmeri Gate, and sought action.

The MCD acknowledged receipt of the communication but said a subsequent inspection found that the owner was undertaking repair work that its maintenance department had advised in April. However, an inquiry by the civic body alleged that the owner used the repair advisory as a cover to clandestinely undertake fresh construction on the second and third floors without the requisite permissions.