Kanpur building collapse: Man, daughter pulled out alive; 2 booked

A father-daughter duo was rescued alive from the debris of an under-construction building which had collapsed in Kanpur’s Jajmau area with police booking a local Samajwadi Party leader and a contractor for negligence.

Teams of army and National Disaster Response Force on Thursday morning rescued the 9-year-old girl and her father from the building’s debris. The duo received minor injuries in the incident, a senior official said, adding that total seven persons were killed in the incident and 18 injured.

Kanpur Development Authority OSD D D Verma on Wednesday night complained to Chakeri Police that Mehtab Alam was getting the building illegally constructed and for which KDA had served him a notice on November 23, 2016, Senior Superintendent of Police Aakash Kulhari said.

But as Alam did not reply to the notice, the said building was sealed by the KDA on December 26, last year. However, the construction was on Wednesday again started after illegally breaking the seal, he said quoting the complaint.

On the basis of the complaint, an FIR was on Wednesday night registered against Alam and his contractor under relevant sections of IPC including 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder), Kulhari said.

Police on Thursday raided Alam’s house but he was not found. Alam and his contractor both are absconding, he said.

Meanwhile, KDA Secretary Jaishree Bhoj has constituted a two-member team to probe the incident within seven days.

Two more bodies were recovered on Thursday at 11.30 am. Two persons presumed to be dead on Wednesday are battling for life, Kanpur Inspector General Zaki Ahmed said.

DIG Rajesh Modak had on Wednesday said that seven persons have died in the incident but the senior officer on Thursday clarified that two persons presumed to be dead are actually battling for their life.

Rescue and relief operations will continue on Wednesday, the second day also as over a dozen persons are suspected to be trapped under the debris, the SSP said.

Kulhari said the NDRF team is not being able to use JCB and other heavy machineries to remove the debris as it is suspected that many more people could be trapped under it.

Chief Medical Officer, Kanpur, Ramayan Prasad said the number of injured in the incident has increased to 18, four of them critically. He informed that a team of doctors is deployed at the mishap spot.

He said out of the five dead, four are men and one woman and the bodies have been kept in Ursula hospital and health hospital. The two bodies recovered on Thursday have not been sent to the mortuary yet.
At least seven labourers were killed after top floors of the seven-storey under-construction building started falling on Wednesday in Kanpur.

Image: Teams of army and National Disaster Response Force remove the debris from the spot where the building collapsed. Photograph: PTI Photo