Police complaint against owner in Sector 13 building collapse case

The Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) has sent a complaint to the Gurugram Police to register an FIR against a building owner who was illegally constructing a basement in Sector 13 that led to the collapse of an adjoining shop on Thursday night.

Vishal Garg, MCG executive engineer, said that the building in Sector 13 is located in the 900-metre radius of the Indian Air Force (IAF) ammunition depot, where no new construction is allowed as per a Punjab and Haryana High Court order in September 2016.

Hence, Garg filed a complaint, on behalf of the MCG, with the Gurugram Police against the owner on Friday.

“We have sent a complaint to the Gurugram Police to register a case against the owner of the building whose under-construction basement had led to the collapse of an adjoining building. The owner had violated rules of the HC, as no new construction is allowed in the 900-metre restricted area of the IAF ammunition depot,” said Garg.

According to Garg since the construction in the basement took place just two days ago, MCG officials failed to notice the same and missed out on taking action against the owner in time.

“Regardless, officials have been put on alert to carry out more on-field visits in the locality and adjoining areas to identify illegal constructions, and prohibit the same from continuing,” he said.

Shailender, sub-inspector, Sector 14 police station, said, “We have received a complaint in the matter. The necessary investigation is under process.”

Garg said the building owner had dug up 12 feet for constructing the basement without taking necessary precautions, such as placing girders and lintels.

This weakened the base of the adjoining structure, leading to its collapse.

Garg also said the MCG was uncertain if the base of the adjoining three-storey residential building had also weakened.

As such, the MCG officials were constructing two walls at the site to lend support to it.

“We aren’t 100% certain if the base of the adjoining residential building remains structurally stable due to the basement construction. Hence, we are building walls next to it, for giving it extra support and for ensuring it no longer remains susceptible to collapse,” said Garg.

Rocky Kataria, the owner of the building where digging was being done, said he had taken the neighbours into confidence before renovating his ground-floor grocery shop where he also intended to add a basement.

“This is an unfortunate incident. I have settled the issue after discussing with the neighbours,” he said.

On Thursday around 9.15 pm, a cosmetics shop, called Dreams Night Wear, collapsed 10 minutes after its owner had closed it for the day.

Eyewitnesses, on Friday, said that the labourers working at the under-construction grocery shop had left for the day in the evening, but the market was still open at the time of the collapse.

Kaushal, the owner of a grocery shop across the road, said his entire shop shook due to the impact of the building collapse.

“A gol-gappa seller had a narrow escape as he was standing hardly five metres away from the structure,” he said.