The owner of a company where a construction structure collapsed, claiming the lives of two people, was arrested by Noida police on Saturday. According to the police, R K Bharadwaj, who heads Shakti Techno Fab in Sector 11, has been sentenced to death for negligence following a complaint by the families of the victims.
On Friday night, the plumbing work taking place in front of the company building caused a collapse, burying four people. Contractor Janendra (35) and a Gopi worker (17) died while two people were injured. A rescue operation involving police, firefighters, and NDRF personnel continued through Friday night. Prime Minister Yogi Adityanath also learned of the incident and ordered the local administration to carry out an investigation.
Among the injured is Ashu, who had taken over the job a few days ago to help his family financially since the closing of the grocery store in Loni de Ghaziabad was hit.
“Usually we would have enough of the store and some side jobs, but the situation was getting worse. So I took a plumbing job for the daily wage. It was bad luck that we were working after 6 in the afternoon, as we usually finished by then. The wall was weak and as soon as I wrapped a cable around one of the pipes, the entire structure fell off. I thought he was going to die, “said Ashu, inside the Sector 30 District Hospital. A makeshift structure had been built with iron rods in front of the company building, and Ashu, along with others, were working on the plumbing.
Ashu and the late Gopi had been hired by Janendra, who lived in the same area in Ghaziabad. Jitendra, originally from Kanpur, is survived by three daughters. For the past four years, he had been involved in acquiring daily bets for such jobs. While construction work at the company had been going on for several months, the front was under construction for the past 15 days, an official said.
“We received a call from Noida that my brother is one of the people who was crushed by the collapse of the building. In an hour, we leave Kanpur. On the way, we were informed that it was gone. There is no one to take care of their daughters; They are barely 10 years old. His wife cannot process what happened, “said Ashok Kumar, Janendra’s brother.
Locals in Sector 11 said the incident took place “in seconds,” and when someone was able to react, people were under the rubble. “Every day we saw people involved in construction. If this incident happened around 5 pm, more people would have died, ”said Deepak, an eyewitness.
A senior official claimed that illegal works were also being carried out on the fourth floor of the building, which was found during the evaluation of the incident. The defendant has been asked to submit documents related to the company as part of the investigation.
She is a freelance blogger, writer, and speaker, and writes for various entertainment magazines.