Five kids killed, one injured in wall collapse
Five children were killed and one injured when a wall that was recently erected, collapsed on them at east Delhi’s Dallupura village on Wednesday.
“Around 9:45 am, the wall collapsed on the kids playing there. Within no time, there were bricks all over the place and the kids were nowhere to be seen,” said Haren Halder, an eye-witness.
The Disaster Management team, Delhi Fire Services and police were subsequently informed. “We rushed to the spot and found people removing bricks. Our team, along with fire brigade officials, pulled the kids out of the debris. They were immediately sent to Lal Bahadur Shastri Hospital where five of them were declared brought dead. One was alive but unconscious,” said Anjali Diwakar, project coordinator of the Delhi Disaster Management Authority.
The victims have been identified as Amit (7), Ankit (6), Baby (4), Kanchan (7) and Aditya (2), while Shrawasti (4) is critical and undergoing treatment, the police said.
Deputy Commissioner of east district B M Mishra said they came to know about the incident around 10 am. “We rushed to the spot and found that five kids had died while one was injured. The incident took place due to sheer negligence of the landlord and the contractor. No technical standards were followed while constructing the wall. They did not take permission from the authorities concerned. The guilty will not be spared,” Mishra said.
A case has been registered under section 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) and section 288 (negligent conduct with respect to pulling down or repairing buildings) of the Indian Penal Code against landlord Vijendra Singh Gujjar and contractor Bhawar Singh, with the New Ashok Nagar police station.
“It was a shocking incident and the guilty will be booked,” said Prabhakar, Deputy Commissioner of Police (east).
Initial investigations revealed that there were 20 one-room huts on the plot where families lived on rent. The owner then rented the land to the Pepsi company for a godown and an 18-foot high boundary wall was being constructed without pillars. “They were constructing a wall in front of the houses and left a small passage for the residents.
Construction was going on for almost 30 days and we had warned them about the cracks in the wall. However, they did not listen and finally the wall collapsed,” said Halder, adding that beat police officers were aware of the construction.
