A 51-year-old man was killed and his wife injured when a partially demolished ‘illegal’ building collapsed in Okhla area of south Delhi on Tuesday. Santosh Kumar Singla and his wife Maya (49), who hailed from Palwal in Haryana, used to run a roadside eatery and do odd jobs to sustain themselves, had moved into the unoccupied building in Sanjay Colony of Okhla Phase-2 on Monday night to seek shelter from the rain.
“Around 2 am, the building suddenly collapsed. Singla and Maya were rushed to a nearby hospital where Singla was declared dead on arrival while his wife is recuperating with her injuries,” said a police official. A case of death by negligence has been registered against the man who owned the three-storey house.
The man had built a house on the plot, but the municipal corporation went on a demolition drive and brought down parts of the encroachment. However, the owner later got a stay on the demolition from the Delhi High Court. Meanwhile, South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) has claimed that the land on which the building was constructed was being maintained by Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board (DUSIB) and that it had no control over it. The civic body has ordered an enquiry to into the matter.