Developer, contractor booked after two labourers died at under-construction site in Kurla

Two labourers died in Mumbai after falling from an under-construction building due to negligence. Three persons, including a developer, have been booked.

Mumbai: Two labourers died after falling from the third floor of an under-construction building in Kurla East on Friday amid heavy rainfall. The Nehru Nagar police have booked three persons, including a private developer, a contractor and a subcontractor for negligence on their part for not providing safety gear to the labourers to execute the construction work.

HT Image

“We have arrested the contractor and subcontractor on Saturday and will arrest the developer soon,” said senior inspector Mohammad Yusuf Saudagar of the Nehru Nagar police station.

The accused have been identified as Piyush Meghani, a private developer who gave the labour contract to Bhagwan Sahay Ramji Shukla, who in turn had given the subcontract to Abhul Alias Sameer Shaikh, Saudagar added.

According to the police, they received a phone call at 8pm on Friday from the Mumbai police control room about the incident at an under-construction site opposite the Kurla bus depot. A police team was sent to the Sion hospital, where the two labourers Budhan Majhi, 31, and Chandan Vazi, 22 were admitted with severe head and body injuries. Majhi and Vazi were both natives of Bihar and came to Mumbai a few years ago.

While Budhan Majhi was declared dead upon arrival on Friday, Vazi was admitted to the ICU and succumbed to his injuries on Saturday.

The police recorded the statement of one of the labourers who was working with the victims at the time of the incident. He told the police that Majhi and Vazi agreed to work overtime after the site contractor asked them to clean the third floor. The third floor, he said, had a pit made to install an elevator and it was covered with cement shades. Once Majhi and Vazi started cleaning the place, they went on the cement shade and it collapsed to the ground floor. Both the victims were found in an unconscious state. The subcontractor Sameer Shaikh along with other workers rushed both the injured to the Sion hospital for treatment. “During punchnama we found that both Majhi and Vazi were not provided safety devices to carry out the work,” said Saudagar.

The police have registered a case against the three accused under sections 106 (causing death by negligence), 125 (act endangering life or personal safety of others) and 125(b) (imprisonment for causing grievous hurt) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita.