One person was killed and two suffered grievous injuries after a shopping complex of the Belagavi City Corporation (BCC), constructed on a drain on Shivaji Road, collapsed early Thursday morning.
The deceased has been identified as Vinayak Shivaji Patkar (45), a resident of Margaon in Goa.
The injured are Balu Ningappa Sambhaji, a resident of Sadashiv Nagar, and Srikant Sadashiv Kamble, a resident of Gadhinglaj in Kolhapur district, Maharashtra.
According to preliminary reports, shops constructed illegally on the first and second floors of the complex, which is not designed to bear the load, led to the collapse.
Compensation
The Belagavi City Corporation has announced a compensation of Rs 1 lakh to the next of kin of the deceased. It will also foot the hospital bills of the two injured. The shops in the complex, constructed in 1980, were let out for lease.
One of the occupants, Ganesh Halgekar, who own a liquor shop ‘Ramesh Wines’ on the ground floor, constructed a two-floor building illegally and converted it into a hotel ‘Mirchi Cola’ in 2006.
The building could not bear the load and it came down crumbling, killing one of his workers and injuring two.
Belagavi City Corporation Commissioner M R Ravikumar said criminal cases would be filed against Haglekar and the illegal occupants of the building.