Labourer dies by falling off 14th floor of new Sion Hospital building

A labourer died after falling from the 14th floor of a hospital building in Mumbai. The contractor has been booked for negligence as proper safety gear was not provided to the worker. No arrests have been made yet.

Mumbai: A 30-year-old labourer, Muzaffar Abdul Rauf Hussain, died after falling from the fourteenth floor of the newly constructed Lokmanya Tilak General Hospital building in Sion. According to the police, on Saturday morning Hussain, a West Bengal native, was working on the site. After falling, Hussain was rushed to Sion Hospital, where he was declared dead. The police have booked the contractor in the case for causing death by negligence as the labourer was not provided with proper security gear.

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“As the immediate contractor Sultan Ali had not provided proper safety gear, the labourer fell from the fourteenth floor and crashed on the sixth floor and suffered severe injuries. He was rushed to the civic hospital where he was declared dead,” said the police officer. His cause of death report said shock due to polytrauma (unnatural).

The Sion Hospital redevelopment project, approved in 2017 with a budget of ₹519.12 crore, entrusted the construction to Ahluwalia Contracts Ltd in January 2021. The redevelopment project included the construction of 17 buildings, comprising a nursing college, doctors’ residential building, utility structures, and hostel buildings, among others.

Sanjay Purandare, who provided a statement to the police, highlighted that Ahluwalia Contracts India Limited was overseeing the project. The human resources executive, Swapnil Shekdar, said that Sultan Ali, the responsible contractor, neglected to ensure the proper use of safety gear. Consequently, the police initiated legal action, converting the accidental death report into a First Information Report (FIR) under section 304-A of the Indian Penal Code. As of now, no arrests have been made in connection with the case.