New Delhi: A 20-year-old four-storey building in a poor condition collapsed in North-west Delhi’s Sawan Park area on Wednesday. Four children, two women and a man succumbed after being trapped in the debris. The building collapsed three weeks after it was inspected by the MCD.
The injured people were rushed to Deep Chand Bandhu Hospital. It was alleged that three weeks ago, the structure was inspected by a municipal team following complaints.
Two teams of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and six fire tenders were rushed to the spot after a call was received at 9.05 am.
“The building was in 25 sq yard and was owned by Dharmender and his partner Sachin and Rosha-nlaal, father of Sachin. Twenty-five people used to live in the building and during the incident, 12 were injured, of which six were declared dead,” DCP (Northwest) Aslam Khan said.
A case under sections 304 of the IPC, which amounts to culpable homicide not mounting to murder, punishable with a maximum term of 10 years and section 34 of the IPC has been filed against the trio, who had rented out the building, he added.
The ground floor of the building housed a shop, which was closed at the time of the incident. The second and third floors were occupied by tenants, while the the first floor was vacant. There were 12 people inside the building when the incident took place.
Umesh, who lost two children — Ashi (3) and Saurya (2), resided on the second floor of the building. Their mother, Seema, also succumbed to injuries during treatment later in the evening.
Umesh’s brother too died in the incident. Two families were living on the third floor. One of the deceased woman, 40-year-old Munni, was living in one of the apartment on the third floor. The other family living on the third floor lost two children — four-year-old Rajnesh and 12-year-old Sumnesh.
A couple named Narottam and Nisha occupied the fourth floor. Nisha is critical, the police said.
“It’s a sad news... The MCD commissioner and mayor are here and I have already asked them to request people to vacate the nearby area for reconstruction. The whole city needs to take a cue from this incident. Buildings like this need to be razed ,” said Delhi BJP chief Manoj Tiwari.
A North MCD official said that building was not declared dangerous by the municipal body and it had not received any application for the purpose in the building department.
