Tenant warned BMC in 2011

In a startling revelation in the Dockyard Road building collapse in which 60 people died, the investigators have learnt that one of the tenants of the building had made a written complaint to civic officials 21 months ago stating, “the dilapidated building will fall anytime”. Shockingly, the letter of this complainant, who died along with his three family members in the incident, was on Monday found in the pocket of market inspector, who was subsequently arrested by the police. The police also arrested two more civic officials along with him on Monday night. The arrested accused have been identified as deputy superintendent market Dr Prithviraj Chatursingh Chavan, 41; assistant engineer Rahul Gajanan Jadhav, 34; and market inspector Jamaludding Abdulla Kazi, 57. Earlier, decorator Ashokkumar Jatansingh Mehta was arrested in the case. A police source on Tuesday told The Asian Age that one Bodhdutt Bhikaji Kambale, a tenant of the room number 14 of the Babu Genu Market building, along with other tenants, had on December 12, 2011 wrote a complaint to assistant engineer (repairs and inspection) about the dangerous state of the building. In the complaint, Kambale also warned civic officials that the building is completely dilapidated and might fall at anytime, asking them to repair it urgently. However, the civic body failed to take the complaint seriously and it resulted in a disaster, which also killed Kambale and three members of his family. A photocopy of Kambale’s complaint letter was found in the pocket of the market inspector Jamaludding Abdulla Kazi, on Monday when the police went to question him. Kazi was then immediately put under the arrest and the letter was seized under the punchnama, source added. Section 201 (destruction of evidence) of IPC was also added in the case. Apart from section 201 accused are booked under Sections 304, 336, 337, 338, 268, 114, 109 and 34. Additional CP (south) Krishna Prakash confirmed, “We have recovered a complaint letter from Kazi’s pocket despite he was claiming during questioning that no such complaint was made.” All the four accused were produced before court on Tuesday and sent to police custody till October 4.