Gurugram police make first arrest in Chintels roof collapse case

Gurugram police commissioner Kala Ramachandran said this is the first arrest in the case. She identified the arrested accused as Amit Austin, a resident of Raj Niwas Road in Civil Lines, Delhi

The Gurugram police on Wednesday arrested a 40-year-old construction contractor who was allegedly carrying out renovation work in the sixth-floor apartment at the Chintels Paradiso condominium in Sector 109, where a roof cave in led to the collapse of the ceilings of all the flats beneath it on February 10. Two people were killed in the incident.

Gurugram, India - Nov. 7, 2022: A view of the Chintels Paradiso residential society in Gurugram, India, on Monday, November 7, 2022. The deputy commissioner of Gurugram Nishant Kumar Yadav will pass his final order on demolishing the damaged Tower-D of Chintels Paradiso today. (Photo by Vipin Kumar/ Hindustan Times) (Hindustan Times)

Gurugram police commissioner Kala Ramachandran said this is the first arrest in the case. She identified the arrested accused as Amit Austin, a resident of Raj Niwas Road, Civil Lines, Delhi.

The commissioner said that Austin is the proprietor of Manish Switchgear and Construction Pvt Ltd, the agency which was engaged in the repair work being carried out at Chintels Paradiso condominium. “He was arrested from Bajghera on Wednesday, and will be produced before the court on Thursday,” she said.

Earlier, a notice was served to Austin to join the investigation, but he did not appear before the police.

Ramachandran said that the matter was being investigated by the special investigation team (SIT). “The work of laying tiles in the apartment at the time of collapse was carried out by the contractor’s team without taking any safety measures,” she said.

Officials of the Chintels Paradiso did not comment on the matter on Wednesday. Earlier, the firm had said that it was extending its full cooperation to the agencies in their probe.

A case under Indian Penal Code sections 304A (causing death by negligence), 34 (common intention), 120B (criminal conspiracy), 417 (cheating), 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), 465 (forgery), 467 (forgery for valuable security), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), and 471 (using as genuine a forged document) , as well as sections 10 and 12 of the Haryana Development and Regulation of Urban Areas Act 1975, was registered in the case in February on a complaint from Rajesh Bhardwaj, whose wife Ekta was among the two victims, said senior police officers associated with the probe.

The authorities decided to demolish Tower D on November 9, where the collapse took place, after a three-member Indian Institute of Technology-Delhi (IIT-D) panel, formed to conduct a structural audit of the building, stated in its September report that the structure deteriorated faster than expected, even though the condominium was only occupied for about five years.

A magisterial inquiry report, submitted in November by a committee headed by the additional deputy commissioner, stated that the developer neglected the demands and issues raised by the residents welfare association and residents. The repair work was also not monitored. The committee observed that excessively corroded steel reinforcement was painted with a yellow coloured solution to conceal the corrosion. This lapse is further corroborated by the IIT-Delhi report, said Nishant Kumar Yadav, deputy commissioner of Gurugram.