The charge sheet was filed 86 days after the incident
Kolkata: Police on Saturday submitted a 1,840-page charge sheet against seven persons in connection with the Taratala warehouse collapse that killed 16 people and injured 17 others. It was filed before the Alipore court on Saturday, 86 days after the incident. Cops had arrested Sheikh (28) from his residence in Bansdroni on Sept 12. Police said Sheikh was responsible for construction-related work in ward 80 and his role in the approval and documentation of the project was being examined. The collapse occurred around noon on June 24 at a site on Transport Depot Road off Hyde Road in Taratala. The death toll eventually rose to 16, while 17 injured workers were treated at hospitals till the rescue operation was called off after three days.
A large-scale rescue operation involving Army, NDRF, SDRF, Kolkata Police and fire services was launched after several workers were trapped under concrete slabs and twisted iron structures. His arrest took the total number of arrests in the case to seven. The other accused include warehouse land lessee Sambhunath Behera, project supervisor Gulzar Hussain, iron-structure fabricator Kamal Samanta, labour supplier Dibakar Bhandari and Abdul Hamid, who allegedly acted as a broker in securing the building plan’s sanction from KMC. All seven persons are in judicial custody and haven’t secured bail since the day of their arrest. SIT had been constituted soon after the collapse. Investigators examined the role of people involved in the construction as well as the process through which the building plan was sanctioned. National Human Rights Commission had also taken suo motu cognisance of the collapse and sought a report from West Bengal chief secretary, Kolkata Police commissioner and KMC municipal commissioner on the investigation and compensation paid to the victims’ families.
Police had earlier questioned and searched premises linked to the accused and seized documents and other material as part of the probe.
The charge sheet, accompanied by supporting documents, was submitted by Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the June 24 collapse of the under-construction warehouse at Taratala. The next hearing in the case has been scheduled on Sept 30, lawyer Gopal Haldar said.