Kolkata flyover tragedy: 10 held for ‘murder’

Three more bodies were pulled out from the debris of the collapsed under-construction flyover at Girish Park in north Kolkata, taking the death toll to 24 on Friday, as the Kolkata police slapped murder charges under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code against accused executives and employees of the Hyderabad-based construction company IVRCL, detaining 10 of them for questioning in the city. Later, three of them were arrested.

The West Bengal government suspended a chief engineer and an executive engineer of the Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority involved in construction of the flyover.

Kolkata police commissioner Rajeev Kumar confirmed that murder charges had been brought against the accused in the case. The police has also formed a 23-member special investigation team (SIT) to probe the incident, said joint commissioner of police (crime) Debashish Boral. It comprises officers from the homicide and anti-rowdy sections of the Kolkata police detective department that is headed by Mr Boral.

A four-member SIT team reached Hyderabad on Friday and sought help of the Hyderabad police to trace officials of the firm. Mr Boral said: “They are speaking to the company officials. The Hyderabad police is cooperating with us. Initially it appeared to be a case of culpable homicide not amounting to murder, but when our team inspected the spot, it emerged it was an act of homicide.”

Subsequently, murder charges were added to the case that was initiated under Sections 307 (attempt to murder), 120B (criminal conspiracy) and 427 (mischief causing damage) on a suo moto basis at the Posta police station on Thursday. On Friday the police got a search warrant from the court and detained 10 IVRCL personnel in Kolkata. Eight of them are executives — president (business developement) of North India R.K. Gopalnanduri, senior assistant general manager M. Mallikarjun, manager (structural VRF) Pradip Kumar Saha, AGM (administration) Debajyoti Majumdar, AGM (corporate administration and liaison) K. Prasad, AGM (projects) and North-East regional head Kamalesh Talukdar, deputy general manager (legal) Ravindrachary and assistant manager (human resources and administration) Ramanna Rao. Two others are a clerk and driver of the company.

Police pickets have been deployed at the firm’s three offices in the city — at Beadon Street, Kasba and Anandapur — and at a guesthouse in Salt Lake.

On Thursday night, GOC-in-C Eastern Command Lt. Gen. Praveen Bakshi visited the site of collapse at the Ganesh Talkies crossing and took stock of the situation. He also supervised the Army’s search and rescue operations along with the National Disaster Response Force for an hour. Working tirelessly through the night, the Army and NDRF rescue teams cut the giant iron structure that had crashed, leaving several persons trapped, into pieces. After shifting the debris they recovered the three more bodies till Friday morning. The cleanup work later got underway. In the afternoon, the Army ended its marathon search and rescue operation that had lasted around 20 hours.

Brigadier Harish Kukreja of Eastern Command, who had monitored the operation at the ground level, said: “There is no possibility of any survivor lying trapped at the spot any further as it has been searched properly. Most of the area has been cleared with the removal of the debris. Our engineering teams have advised the civil administration on how to bring down the other collapsed part of the flyover without causing any collateral damage to the adjoining buildings.”

He added the large iron structure which had fallen on two vehicles, including a truck, will need technical expertise for removal. The police and rescue workers found a man lying in an unconscious state inside the truck trapped under the giant part, but they could not reach the spot.

NDRF deputy inspector-general S.S. Guleria said that the NDRF rescue team personnel would utilise technical equipment, including a hydraulic ladder, to remove the collapsed part gradually. Meanwhile, 23 of the 24 victims have been identified, while the number of the injured has reached 89, said special additional commissioner of police (headquarters) Supratim Sarkar.

In Hyderabad, meanwhile, a senior executive of IVRCL on Friday described the incident as an “accident” that was under “no one’s control”, a day after another executive of the company had called it an “act of God”. IVRCL legal team head P. Sita told reporters in Hyderabad: “It was an accident ... 100 per cent no issues with regard to quality. It is the same material that was used for the 60th section (which collapsed), that was used for the 59 sections after approval ... Unfortunately, it collapsed.”

She went on to add: “We are not aware how it happened. We want to know the reason why it (collapse) happened. We will cooperate with the investigation agencies... We are anxious to know why it happened, we want to know the reasons.”