Murder charges considered in overpass collapse
Construction firm’s employees questioned by Indian authorities as death toll hits 26
KOLKATA, INDIA — Indian police said Saturday that they are investigating murder charges against 10 construction company employees who have been either arrested or detained in connection with the tragic collapse of an unfinished overpass in Kolkata that killed at least 26 people.
Rescuers continued clearing rubble from the scene of Thursday’s accident. Sixty-nine people have been pulled out alive, but authorities said they doubted more survivors would be found.
Judge Sanchita Sarkar of the Kolkata city court on Saturday remanded three arrested employees of IVRCL Infrastructure Co., which was contracted to build the overpass, to police custody for nine days for questioning and investigation.
Seven other company employees have been detained for questioning, police said.
The employees were being questioned regarding possible charges of murder and culpable homicide, punishable by death or life imprisonment, and criminal breach of trust, which carries a prison sentence of up to seven years, police said.
Rescue workers pulled out two more bodies from under the rubble on Saturday, raising the death toll to 26, said police inspector Debashish Chakraborty. The bodies were pinned under concrete slabs and were recovered by emergency workers at the crash site.
While most of the injured have been discharged from the hospital, 18 were still undergoing treatment, Chakraborty said.
IVRCL Infrastructure, based in the southern city of Hyderabad, was contracted in 2007 to build the overpass, a project that was expected to take two years. But construction was far behind schedule.
The overpass had spanned nearly the width of the street and was designed to ease traffic through Kolkata’s densely crowded Bara Bazaar neighbourhood. The structure fell within hours of concrete being poured into steel girders Thursday.