Kolkata flyover collapse: Construction company's 3 officials arrested, 25 dead

A day after an under-construction flyover collapsed in Kolkata leaving at least 25 dead, the police last night arrested three top officials of a Hyderabad-based company IVRCL which was building the flyover and slapped murder charges on them.
Earlier the police had detained 10 officials of the construction company's Kolkata office for questioning and later arrested three of them, a senior Kolkata Police officer said.
The three - Assistant General Manager Mallikaarjun, Assistant Manager Debjyoti Manjumdar and Structure Manager Pradip Kumar Saha - were arrested under IPC sections 302 (murder), 307 (attempt to murder) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) and others.
They will be produced before a court tomorrow. Seven other officials of the company are still detained, the officer said, adding that a team of Kolkata Police has left for Hyderabad to meet IVRCL top bosses.
Police had registered a case against the construction firm under sections 304, 308 and 407 of the IPC and sealed its local office.
The state government also suspended a chief engineer and an executive engineer of the Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority who were involved in the construction of the flyover pending completion of the probe which the government ordered yesterday.
It also ordered immediate inspection of the remaining portion of the flyover to ascertain its stability and safety, an official release said. About a 60-metre-long stretch of the 2.2 km flyover under construction crashed down yesterday afternoon on a congested road intersection.
Forensic experts visited the site and collected samples of materials used for the construction for examination.
A day after an official of IVRCL dubbed the flyover collapse as an "act of God", IVRCL's legal team head P Sita said, "It is an accident". She also did not rule out sabotage and referred to a media report which said there could have been a bomb blast.
"An act of God was just an expression only to describe that it is under no one's control," she said in Hyderabad.
Ruling out use of substandard materials, Sita said, "100 per cent no issues with regard to quality. It is the same material, as was used to construct the 59 sections earlier with approval, with which the 60th section (which collapsed) was built. Unfortunately it collapsed."
"Why did this happen? We are anxious to know the reasons. We are surprised and extremely shocked. We are there to cooperate with the investigation, but investigation takes time," she said.
Showing a photograph of the collapse site published in a newspaper, she said, "It looked like a site of bomb blast. There are various aspects which should be looked into."
The state government requested 62 families in neighbouring houses to vacate their premises temporarily to enable safe removal of the collapsed span.
Following rescue operation throughout the night by the Army, NDRF, Kolkata Police, disaster management team and fire fighters, the toll rose to 24 with the recovery of three more bodies from underneath the debris of concrete and iron girdles, a police officer said. The number of injured, he said, was close to 90.
Meanwhile, the incident triggered a blame game between the ruling party and the Opposition ahead of the Assembly election which commences on April 4.
Union Minister MA Naqvi accused the state government of "criminal negligence" in relief work.
Demanding a CBI probe into the collapse, he also alleged that the Mamata Banerjee government was engaged in a "competition on corruption" with the previous Left Front government resulting in the flyover collapse.
TMC national spokesperson Derek O' Brien termed Naqvi's statements as "cheap politics" during the election season.
"Just saw a BJP Minister's statement. Reeks of cheap politics in election season. Army came at state's request. Army belongs to nation, not the BJP," Brien said.
Accusing the erstwhile Left Front regime of making a "faulty plan" for building the flyover, TMC MP Sudip Bandopadhyay said there were complaints from locals about its planning but at that time 60 per cent work was done."
WBPCC president Adhir Chowdhury said if the plans were faulty, then why didn't the TMC government change it.
Asked why the contractor of the flyover was not changed if the design was faulty, state PWD minister Firhad Hakim said, "This is not time to do politics. Once a tender has been given to someone, it is tough to take it back."