New Delhi: Police Tuesday added a charge of culpable homicide not amounting to murder in the Harsh Vihar building collapse case after the bodies of a father and son were pulled from the debris nearly 14 hours after parts of an under-construction building caved in.
Police said information about the incident was received at around 6.45 pm. Rescue teams, including two fire tenders, two ambulances, a crane, civil defence volunteers and an NDRF team, were deployed.
Vijay’s elder brother reached the site around 6 pm after calls to both men went unanswered and found their motorcycle parked outside the collapsed building, according to family members. Relatives claimed the boundary wall near the gate was demolished around 2 am, nearly nine hours after the collapse, allowing earth movers and cranes to be deployed. Authorities said debris was cleared and a search operation launched.
Their family alleged that the building owner locked the entry gate after the collapse and fled, misleading locals by claiming that no one was inside the structure. However, family members alleged delays in the use of heavy machinery. With only a narrow access point to the site, entry of excavators and other equipment was initially restricted. “We had to beg and plead in front of authorities to convince them that our relatives were inside. They could’ve been taken out much sooner if heavy machinery had been employed promptly,” family members alleged.