Ghaziabad building collapse: Death toll rises to 2

GHAZIABAD: The death toll in the building collapse incident in Ghaziabad’s Akash Nagar area climbed to two on Monday after rescue teams pulled out the dead body of an eight-year-old boy in the wee hours on Monday.

According to a senior official of the National Disaster Rescue Force (NDRF), the body of an eight-year-old boy was pulled out around 2.30 am on Monday, who was identified as Sagar. The rescue teams have also managed to rescue eight persons from the debris, who were admitted to the hospital.

Meanwhile, Ghaziabad District Magistrate Ritu Maheshwari suspended four Ghaziabad Development Authority (GDA) supervisors and initiated action against six junior engineers and an assistant engineer.

The Additional District Magistrate (Finance and Revenue) completed the magisterial inquiry into the case, and based on the report submitted Maheshwari ordered action.

“Based on the report submitted by the investigating team, an FIR against three persons, namely Kishan Pal Tomar, Mukesh Singh and Dinesh Kumar Das, has been registered. As investigation progresses and more names come up, they will also be included in the FIR and action will be taken against them. Four supervisors have been suspended and a government report has been sent against seven people,” Maheshwari said.

Four other GDA officers, namely Govind Sharan Dubey, Gajendra Singh, Rajveer Singh and Mukesh have been suspended with immediate effect, after finding them responsible for the building collapse.

The ADM has also found seven GDA officers careless in their duty in his probe.

These officers are assistant engineer and in-charge engineer of enforcement zone-3 Nishant Kumar, junior engineer TN Singh, Ramakant Tiwari, Rameshwar Sharma, Kamal Deep, Ajay Kumar Singh and Adarsh Bhatnagar.

Strict action has been recommended against all seven.

While the rescue team continues to look for possible survivors and more bodies, the building owner is still at large.