Debris clearance at east Delhi building collapse site ends

Rescue workers did not say whether any bodies were recovered in the past 48 hours. The toll in the collapse of the multi-storeyed building in Lalita Park area of Laxmi Nagar stands at 70."The clearance operations is over," a fire brigade official said.
Eighty-one people are undergoing treatment at various city hospitals.

Delhi government has ordered a judicial probe into the incident to find out what led to the incident and suggest measures to overhaul the system which can act as a "deterrence" against such tragedies.

Meanwhile, Delhi Police Commissioner B K Gupta said a special Crime Branch team investigating the building collapse in east Delhi will probe all angles including how the "unauthorised, weak" structure came up.

Gupta said the investigations was handed over to Crime Branch from local police to ensure that all angles can be probed and all documents examined properly.
"Already a case has been registered. We have arrested the owner of the building who had gone into hiding. A special team has been constituted. All angles will be investigated and no aspect will be left," Gupta told reporters here.

He was responding to a question whether the probe by Crime Branch will cover the negligence of MCD officials or local administration with regard to the collapse of the multi-storeyed building in Lalita Park on Monday night.

The Commissioner said the magnitude of the disaster was so big that it claimed at least 70 lives."How these unauthorised, weak structures came up, many people lost lives, poor people have suffered in this disaster. There is a need for a proper investigation and we will do that," Gupta said.

Amritpal Singh (55), the owner of the building, was arrested on Wednesday night from Geeta Colony area after he went in hiding after the incident. Singh has at least 25 cases against him.

Officials of MCD and local administration as well as police were accused of conniving with Singh and people like him to allow unauthorised construction in Lalita Park locality, which was regularised by government.