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First arrest in Moshi tragedy: Project head held by police
The arrested accused has been identified as Ashok Kumar Gupta (59), project head of Antony Lara Renewable Energy Pvt. Ltd. He was produced before a local court on Tuesday, which remanded him to police custody till July 17.
PUNE: Days after the collapse at the Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation’s (PCMC) Waste-to-Energy (WTE) plant in Moshi claimed nine lives, Pimpri Chinchwad police on Tuesday arrested the project head of Antony Lara Renewable Energy Pvt. Ltd., the first arrest in the case.
The arrest came hours after an FIR was registered late on Monday night at the MIDC Bhosari police station. Police said the accused was arrested in Pimpri as part of the ongoing investigation.
The arrested accused has been identified as Ashok Kumar Gupta (59), project head of Antony Lara Renewable Energy Pvt. Ltd. A resident of Moshi and originally from Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, Gupta was injured in the July 8 incident and is now in police custody. Efforts are underway to trace and arrest the company’s safety officer, who has also been named in the FIR.
Gupta was produced before a local court on Tuesday. The court remanded him to police custody till July 17.
The MIDC Bhosari police registered the FIR against Gupta and Vijay Ramrao Sapkal (38), the company’s safety officer and a resident of Bijalinagar, Chinchwad, based on a complaint lodged by a civic official.
Maruti Jagtap, DCP, Zone III, said, “Late on Monday night, based on the complaint filed by a civic official, we registered an FIR against two persons. Following this, the project head was arrested, and we will soon arrest the safety officer as well.”
According to the FIR, the accident occurred around 1.30 pm on July 8 at the PCMC Waste-to-Energy project at the Moshi garbage depot. Following heavy rainfall, a massive heap of accumulated garbage and waste material gave way and crashed onto the plant’s administrative building, trapping workers inside.
The collapse triggered an 84-hour rescue operation involving the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), the Indian Army, the PCMC Fire Brigade and other emergency agencies. Nine workers were killed in the incident, while 12 others, including Gupta, sustained injuries.
Senior Police Inspector Ganesh Jamadar of MIDC Bhosari police station said the company had allegedly failed to take adequate preventive measures despite being aware of the danger posed by the towering garbage mound during continuous heavy rainfall.
“The company was entrusted with processing municipal solid waste at the Moshi facility. Despite the prevailing monsoon conditions and the known risk of garbage sliding, essential safety precautions were allegedly not implemented to protect employees working inside the administrative building,” Jamadar said.
The FIR alleges that the project management failed to ensure structural safety and did not adopt adequate precautionary measures to prevent a garbage slide. Police said the accused continued operations despite being aware of the potential threat to human life, resulting in the fatal collapse.
Officials said the case was registered after a preliminary inquiry by the municipal administration into the circumstances leading to the accident.
The accused have been booked under Sections 105, 125(a), 125(b) and 3(5) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) for culpable homicide not amounting to murder, acts endangering human life and related offences.
PI Ganesh Jamadar is leading the investigation. Police will examine whether mandatory workplace safety norms were violated, whether proper risk assessments were carried out despite the heavy rainfall, and whether negligence by the company’s officials directly contributed to the deaths.
