A 50-year-old man was killed and three others were injured when the boundary wall of a government school collapsed in central Delhi’s Gole Market on Thursday.
The victims were sitting near a roadside barber and some tea shops when the wall collapsed and they got trapped under the debris, police said.
After the initial probe, construction in an adjoining plot is being blamed for the incident.
The deceased has been identified as Dhulichand, who lived with family in a JJ cluster at Kali Bari Marg.
According to police, 50-year-old Kamla Prasad, Sandeep, 35, and Kanchan, 35, were injured.
A call was made to the police control room to inform about the incident at Kendriya Vidyalaya in Robert Square at 1 pm. Schoolchildren were there, but none of them were injured.
Four people trapped under the debris were pulled out by locals before a team of police and personnel of Delhi Disaster Management Authority and Delhi Fire Services reached the spot.
They were taken to Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital, where Dhulichand was declared brought dead.
Kamla Prasad told police that he had been visiting Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital for treatment.
He was waiting for his son when the incident occurred. “The injured were discharged on Thursday evening,” said a police officer.
A case under sections 288 (negligent conduct with respect to pulling down or repairing buildings) and 304-A (causing death by negligence) of the Indian Penal Code has been registered with Mandir Marg police station.
Investigating authorities suspect that construction activities in an adjoining plot, cleared after razing another structure, could have led to weakening of the collapsed building.
“While the demolition took away the support from one side, the digging work weakened its foundation,” said a police officer.
Police are questioning the contractor and labourers to ascertain the exact sequence of events. The school authorities have also initiated an internal probe into the incident.
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