Building collapse: 3 builders, photographer arrested

Four more persons, including three co-owners of the construction firm, were on Monday arrested in connection with the building collapse in Thane district, taking the total number of arrests in the case to 21, police said.

Besides the three builders, namely Naseem Hasam Mehdi Hasan Choudhary, 42, Mohamad Ilias Mohamad Hafique Mallik, 37, and Abdul Hakim Mohamad Mazid Choudhary, 35, who were held, Thane Crime Branch also arrested a photographer—Vishnu Baburao Ghumre, 42, who leaked information about a demolition drive to the developers and accepted a bribe from them.

The police had recovered a diary from the two real estate developers arrested earlier which led to nabbing these three builders, as well as beneficiaries of protection money.

The police is also tracking the movements of another such alleged beneficiary, who is a deputy municipal commissioner, expected to be nabbed soon.

Earlier, the police had arrested 17 people, including a number of civic officials, including Deputy Commissioner Deepak Chavan, the main real estate developers, an NCP civic corporation engineers and a police constable, who have been remanded to police custody up to April 20.