The toll in the Ghatkopar building mounted to 17 on Wednesday, even as the police arrested a Shiv Sena functionary on charges of culpable homicide not amounting to murder for allegedly carrying out "illegal" structural changes in the affected building to renovate his private nursing home located on the ground floor.
On a day when more number of bodies were recovered from the debris, the police took into custody Sunil Shitap, a local office bearer of the Shiv Sena, who ran a maternity home on the ground floor of “Sai Darshan”, a ground plus four-storey building located at Ghatkopar’s Damodar Park which collapsed at 10.54 am on Tuesday.
Shitap, who was booked under 304-2 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder), 336 (Act endangering life or personal safety others) and 338 ( causing grievous hurt endangering life or personal safety of others) of IP for allegedly contributing to the mishap, produced before a city court which remanded him in police custody till August 2.
An influential politician, Shitap had allegedly removed a few load-bearing pillars to undertaken massive renovation of his maternity home located on the ground floor of “Sai Darsha” which housed 12 families.
Informed civic sources said that Shitap had allegedly through his political to sought permission from the the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) in 2009 for using the ground floor as a nursing home. “Shitap had in the recent past gone in for major renovation work without necessary permission from the BMC. As part of the renovation work, he had removed a few critical load bearing pillars,” a senior BMC official said.
The building, which had three flats on every floor, turned into a pile of rubble in a span of mere one hour on Tuesday.
Two families—the Khanchandanis and the Dongres living in the building – bore the maximum brunt in the mishap, having lost their three members each. Deoras, Ajmeras and Tags lost two members each of their families. Ajmeras were in a way unlucky as they had bought another flat elsewhere were preparing to move.
At around 5 pm on Wednesday when they called off their 30-hour-long search and rescue operations, the city fire brigade and NDRF teams had recovered 17 bodies and rescued 28 persons from under the debris of the first major building collapse that the metropolis has witnessed during the current monsoon.
Those killed comprised two children –a three-month female infant and 18 months’ old boy, 10 women and five men.
In all, 12 persons, including two fire brigade personnel, were injured in the mishap. Of the injured, four persons are continuing to be treated at the nearby Shanti Niketan Hospital.
Meanwhile, BMC Commissioner Ajoy Mehta has set a 15-day deadline for submission of a report of the inquiry into the mishap that he had ordered on Tuesday.
The inquiry will seek to establish as to what all permissions had been given to the residents, particularly Shitap, to undertake repairs and alterations in the structure. The inquiry will also try to ascertain if the local civic officials had colluded with Shitap in the grant of permissions.
The BMC had reportedly issued to eviction notice to the residents of the dilapidated building which was nearly 40 years’ old.
The civic administration has ordered structural audit of several buildings at Ghatopar elsewhere in the north-east Mumbai.