New Delhi: Seventy hours after a three-storey building came down in Chawri Bazar, the debris was still giving up bodies.
Rescue teams pulled out another body on Sunday morning, taking the toll to seven. The latest victim was Luchhuman Mukhiya, 66, a resident of Bihar's Darbhanga district. The body was taken to LNJP Hospital.
The building collapsed around 9:45am on November 5 while construction work was on. It stands in Gali Sheesh Mahal in the Hauz Qazi area, near the Chawri Bazar metro station. Personnel from the Delhi Police, Delhi Fire Services, the National Disaster Response Force and the Municipal Corporation of Delhi have been at the site for more than 70 hours. About 15 construction workers were there when it fell.
The seven dead have been identified as Sanjeet Kumar, Kishori Sah, Pankaj Sharma, Vipin Ram, Shantu, Dinesh Sah and Luchhuman Mukhiya. Four were residents of Bihar, and Vipin Ram lived in Mandawali in Delhi.
DCP (Central) Rohit Rajbir Singh said the lane leading to the building is barely four to five feet wide, which has slowed the operation. Debris is being cleared carefully so that neighbouring structures are not damaged, he said, and the rescue could run until late on Sunday night. Earthmovers cannot enter the lane, so crews break slabs with drilling machines, cut steel with electric cutters and carry the rubble out on mini-trolleys and mules.
Police arrested the owner, Saimullah alias Ayub, a resident of Gali Shish Mahal near Ajmeri Gate. Three contractors, Siraj, Tajuddin and Furkan, were picked up a day earlier from Sirohi village in Haryana's Faridabad district. All three are also from the Ajmeri Gate area.
An FIR was registered at Hauz Qazi police station on November 5 under Sections 105, 290, 125(a) and 3(5) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita. Section 105 deals with culpable homicide not amounting to murder.
The structure was going up on a 50-square-metre plot. The MCD has said no building plan was sanctioned for it. It had reached the third floor and collapsed while the roof slab was being laid.
In June, the Delhi Police had written to the MCD flagging that the building was being constructed illegally. After the collapse, the civic body suspended an assistant engineer and a junior engineer pending an inquiry.
Chief Minister Rekha Gupta has ordered a detailed probe and strict action against those found responsible. The search for anyone still trapped has not been called off.