Delhi Police files charge sheet against 6 in Satya Niketan building collapse

New DelhiThe Delhi Police has filed a charge sheet against six people, including an elderly couple and their son, the owners of a building used to run a paying guest accommodation in Satya Niketan that collapsed and killed seven people, including five Delhi University (DU) students, two senior police officers said on Thursday

New Delhi

The site of the building collapse at Satya Niketan. (Sanchit Khanna/HT)

The Delhi Police has filed a charge sheet against six people, including an elderly couple and their son, the owners of a building used to run a paying guest accommodation in Satya Niketan that collapsed and killed seven people, including five Delhi University (DU) students, two senior police officers said on Thursday.

The charge sheet, running 638 pages, was submitted to the Patiala House Court on November 4, and also named the labour contractor and two operators of the “Hostel Daze” PG, officers said. The charges levied include culpable homicide not amounting to murder, rash or negligent act endangering life, negligent conduct during repair or construction of a building, voluntarily causing hurt and mischief causing damage to property, they said.

One of the officers cited above said, “We filed the charge sheet in Judicial Magistrate First Class (JMFC) Kautuk Bhardwaj’s court on November 4 and named six accused, who were arrested and are in judicial custody. A total of 87 witnesses have been listed in the charge sheet. The witnesses include five injured victims.”

The six named in the charge sheet include Hari Ram Gupta, an 82-year-old former air force sergeant, his wife, Urmila Gupta, 76, their son Mahesh Gupta, 52, PG operators Sudhanshu Lavnish Kumar, 28, and Shubham Tyagi, 29, and labour contractor Sanoj Kumar, 37.

Around 1pm on September 6, the five-storey building in southwest Delhi’s Satya Niketan collapsed, trapping at least 12 people, including eight students. A multi-agency rescue and search operation continued for nearly two days.

Seven people were pulled out dead from under the rubble. Five of them were students identified as Abhishek Kumar, 20, Yuvraj Soni, 20, Pawan Kumar, 17, Arpit Jahaj, 18, and Akshat Singh Yadav, 18. The two others were Surinder Singh, 75, and Pawan Lal Kori, 30; both labourers. Those injured were Asgar Ali, 30, Neeraj Bawan, 19, Aditya Kumar, 19, Nitish Chib, 19 and Mohammad Ayan, 18.

“Our probe revealed that despite knowing that the building’s foundation was weak and could not bear the additional load and people could die if it collapsed, the Guptas, driven by the greed for rent, deliberately added four floors to a structure that was constructed in the 1970s,” the second officer said.

The Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) suspended south zone deputy commissioner Rakesh Kumar and four engineers following the incident.

The officers said Hari Ram, the caretaker, was a direct beneficiary, while his wife, Urmila Gupta, was the registered owner. Payments from the property were transferred to her bank account. Their son allegedly managed the affairs and collected cash payments.

Sudhansu and Shubham were operating the PG accommodations in the building, compromising the safety of students, while contractor Sanoj was carrying out renovation and refilling work in the basement, which triggered the collapse due to breaking down a wall, the officers said.