Labourer dies after falling from 2nd floor of a 7-storey Juhu building

A labourer died after falling from a building while painting without any safety gear. The contractor has been arrested for negligence. Residents had warned about the lack of safety measures.

MUMBAI: A labourer died after falling from the second floor of a seven-storey building in Juhu on Sunday afternoon while painting the walls without any safety gear. The Juhu police have booked the contractor for negligence and arrested him.

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According to the police officials, the victim Ramhit Patel, 30, was painting the facade of Dharam Jyot Premises CHS on AB Nair Road in Juhu while standing on a raised platform.

At about 3.30pm, he lost his balance and fell to the ground. He sustained fatal injuries.

“We have booked the contractor Machhindra Tupe, 43, for being negligent by not providing a safety harness, belt jacket or taking any other precautionary measure to prevent an untoward incident. He has been arrested under section 304A of the Indian Penal Code,” said an official from Juhu police.

The officer also said that Patel had sustained severe injuries on his head due to the fall.

Many of the residents of the building were angry over the incident. They said that they had expressed their concerns about the lack of safety measures for the work to the building’s management committee, However, they were ignored.

“We were shocked to see the lack of building regulations and safety measures in place. After pointing it out to the management committee, they spoke to us very rudely and dismissed our concerns,” said Seema Prasad, a resident of the building.

Other residents second with Prasad and say that since they refused to heed to the warning, the management committee members must also be held accountable for the death of Patel.

Earlier cases

- The Park Site police have filed chargesheet against three persons including a private developer, contractor and site engineer in connection with the death of a 19-year-old worker who was crushed to death after a 10-ton car parking lift platform crashed on him from the 23rd floor in Vikhroli West on January 4, 2023. The deceased, Shivkumar Mewalal Jaiswal, was working on the ground floor in the 23-storey Siddhivinayak building and fitting aluminium sheet to cover the car parking space when the lift platform crashed down crushing him during installation.

- In a second incident of hydraulic car parking lift, which occurred in Chembur on May 31, 2023, 40-year-old Yogesh Jadhav working as a housekeeping staff in Swastik Flair building was killed after a stack parking column collapsed on him during service work. The Chembur police have registered a case and arrested two persons - Devraj Bhoir, owner of JDB company who had taken the contract for the service of the lift, and his employee Vishal Bhosle. “The accused have been released on bail. We will file chargesheet against them in two to three weeks” said assistant police inspector RP Gaikwad of Chembur police station.

- In February 2023, two zari workers - Imran Ali Khan and Shabir Ali Shakir Ali Mirza - lost their lives outside Four Seasons Hotel in Worli when a concrete slab from a construction site behind the hotel fell on them accidentally, while they were on a break from work at a paan and tea shop nearby. The Worli police have registered a case under section 304A of the Indian Penal Code for causing death by negligence against the labour contractor and two workers of the site. The Worli police have in April filed a chargesheet against the trio in a metropolitan magistrate court.

- Three women labourers died while two others including a man, suffered injuries when a part of the construction site collapsed on them at Virar east on June 6. According to the Virar police, construction work was going on at Manwal Pada in Virar East where 12 labourers were working without any safety gear. The builder Chirag Doshi and contractor Bharat Patel were arrested under the section of death due to negligence under section 304(a) and sections 337 and 338 of the Indian Penal Code. The construction was going on for a building named Surya Kiran. Builder Chirag Doshi and his contractor Bharat Patel were arrested in the case and later released on bail.