Vasant Vihar wall collapse: 3 bodies found, toll in rain-related incidents in Delhi rises to 11

PTI

New Delhi, June 29

The bodies of three labourers were on Saturday pulled from the rubble of a wall that collapsed at a construction site in the Vasant Vihar area here amid heavy rain, officials said.

With this, the number of people killed in rain-related incidents in Delhi has risen to 11.

The under-construction wall collapsed on Friday and the incident was reported to the Delhi Fire Services (DFS) around 5:30 am.

DFS officials said the bodies of three labourers have been pulled from the rubble. Two of them have been identified as Santosh Kumar Yadav (19) and Santosh Kumar (20).

The third labourer is identified as Dayaram (45), who used to work at the site with his wife, officials said.

Cranes were used to clear the debris and water was pumped out of the foundation pit to recover the bodies.  

The bodies were taken to Safdarjung Hospital, they said.

A search operation was later conducted to ensure no one else was trapped under the rubble.

Teams of the National Disaster Response Force, Delhi Disaster Management Authority and civic agencies have carried out the operation, the officials said.

Santosh Kumar was the only son of his parents in Bihar’s Supaul.

Kumar’s kin Satyawan said Santosh had come to Delhi four years ago in search of work.

“He would work on construction sites and send money to his parents in Bihar. The family is very poor,” Satyawan said.

He had joined the work here at this site two weeks ago, he added.

Another Santosh, who also hails from Supaul, Bihar, is survived by his two brothers and parents. His two brothers work in another construction site in Delhi, Satywan said.

Dayaram was a native of Uttar Pradesh’s Jhansi. His two sons live with their family in UP, he added.

A case under section 288 (negligent conduct with respect to pulling down or repairing buildings) and 304A (causing death by negligence) of the Indian Penal Code was registered against the unknown person at Vasant Vihar police station.

A police officer said the basement was constructed to build a house on the plot. The contractor and the owner of the plot have been questioned and the probe was underway.

On Saturday, two boys drowned in a waterlogged sections of the Siraspur underpass.

Six people died in rain-related incidents on Friday as the monsoon arrived with a fury, lashing the city with its highest rainfall in a single day of June in 88 years.

The deceased included a cab driver who died after a portion of a canopy at the Delhi airport collapsed, a 39-year-old man who was electrocuted in Rohini’s Prem Nagar area and four people who drowned in New Usmanpur, Shalimar Bagh and the Okhla Industrial area. 

Join Whatsapp Channel of The Tribune for latest updates.

#Monsoon