Gujarat building collapse death toll at 7; rescue ops conclude

Almost 24 hours after a dilapidated multi-storey residential building in Gujarat’s Surat came crashing down on July 6 following days of heavy rainfall, rescue workers pulled out seven dead bodies and some 15 people alive from the debris.

Located in the Sachin Pali area of Surat, the six-floor structure that housed textile workers and their families was “built illegally” in 2017, officials said, adding that a thorough investigation will begin now that the rescue operation has concluded.

Out of the 30 apartments in the building, only about five were occupied, Surat’s Commissioner of Police Anupam Gehlot said.

“Around five flats were occupied, mostly by those who work in factories in the area. When rescue work started, we heard cries of those who were trapped. We rescued a woman from the rubble and sent her to hospital,” Gehlot said.

Some of the building’s residents were at work when the structure collapsed, but many others, who worked night shifts, were sleeping inside at the time, he said.

Authorities said that an FIR has been registered against two owners of the building and the individual who collected rent from the tenants. They have been charged with culpable homicide not amounting to murder.

The FIR has been registered under the newly formed Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita sections, including 105 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder), against building owners Raj Kakadiya and his mother Ramilaben Kakadiya, and Ashwin Vekariya, who was responsible for collecting rent from the building's occupants, said Inspector Jignesh Chaudhari of the Sachin Pali police station.

Vekariya has been arrested and efforts are on to trace the owners of the building, Chaudhari said, adding that Raj Kakadiya is said to be currently in the US.

Meanwhile, in another similar incident in Jharkhand’s Deoghar town, a two-storey building collapsed early on July 7, killing three people and injuring eight others.

All occupants of the building have been accounted for, and the rescue operation has concluded, officials said.

“As many as six persons were retrieved from under the debris and brought to the Sadar Hospital here. Of them, two were brought dead. Another woman succumbed to her injuries. The treatment of the three others, including a child, is underway,” Deogarh Civil Surgeon Ranjan Sinha said earlier in the day while rescue operations were still on.