Jul 10, 2024 08:09 PM IST
Three people, including two owners of the building, have been booked by the Surat Police on charges of culpable homicide not amounting to murder, and one of them has been arrested
Ahmedabad: The five-storey building which collapsed on Saturday (July 6), killing seven people, was an unauthorised construction, officials at the Surat Municipal Corporation (SMC) have said.
The building’s layout plan was approved, but it did not have construction permission or Building Use (BU) permission, said a senior official aware of the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity. BU permission certifies that the building is safe and fit for occupancy.
The official said that the building was initially part of the Surat Urban Development Authority (SUDA), which oversees urban planning and development in certain areas when it was illegally built in 2016. The Pali area, where the building was located, came under SMC jurisdiction only in 2020.
In April, the SMC had sent a notice for strengthening the building as part of a pre-monsoon exercise. “It was a routine process where many buildings were asked to strengthen. There were no signs that it was in such a dilapidated state that it would collapse anytime,” the official added.
A real estate expert claimed that there would be hundreds of such unauthorized buildings in Surat that SMC would have inherited in the last few years after its area was expanded.
Seven bodies were recovered from the site of the building in Surat after the six-storey building collapsed on Saturday (July 6). Three people, including two owners of the building, have been booked by the Surat Police on charges of culpable homicide not amounting to murder, and one of them has been arrested.
The eight-year-old Kailash Raj Residency, located in Sachin Pali village of Surat, collapsed around 2:30pm amid several days of incessant rain. The building was mostly vacant as earlier occupants had left due to the danger it posed. Around six of the flats were occupied, mostly by factory workers.
A team of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), two teams of the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF), police personnel, and the fire brigade were involved in the overnight rescue operation. “A total of eight people were buried under the collapsed structure, and only one was rescued alive,” Sachin GIDC police station inspector Jignesh Chaudhari said earlier.
The deceased, all textile workers from Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh, have been identified as Hiraman Kevat (40), Abhishek (35), Brijesh God (50), Shivpujan Kevat (26), Anmol Harijan (17), Parvesh Kevat (21), and Lalji Kevat (40).
An FIR was registered against three individuals — building owners Raj Kakadiya and his mother Ramilaben Kakadiya, along with Ashwin Vekariya, who was responsible for rent collection — under several sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, including Section 105 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder). Vekariya has been arrested, while Raj Kakadiya, currently in the US, and his mother are being sought by the police.
The Surat Police reported that the building had been in a state of disrepair for a long time, with residents frequently complaining about water leakage and structural cracks. Despite warnings from the SMC against residing in the building due to potential danger, the owners and Vekariya continued to rent out the flats without performing necessary repairs.
Surat district collector Dr Sourabh Pardhi told HT on Sunday (July 7) that while he was unaware of any previous warnings, the SMC had issued a notice on April 26 for strengthening the building.
Constructed in 2016, the building was initially under the gram panchayat and was transferred to SUDA in 2020. Dr Pardhi suggested that the collapse might have been due to an issue with one of the pillars, causing the building to fall from one side.
