With public anger mounting and the death toll in the flyover collapse in north Kolkata increasing to 24 on Friday, the Kolkata Police instituted a murder case against officials of IVRCL, the Hyderabad-based company contracted to build the structure. The charges against the company officials include attempt to murder and criminal conspiracy.
As of Friday, 23 bodies had been recovered. One more body was stuck in a truck under the debris. The number of injured stands at 90 with 16 of them still in hospital.
Three officials of IVRCL have been arrested and seven detained, including the president, business development, north India, R.K. Gopalnanduri. Senior police officers said police teams rushed to Hyderabad, where the company is headquartered.
Search warrants have been issued for three offices of the company, and the police have been deployed outside these premises. “A 23-member SIT has been formed by the Kolkata Police to probe into the matter,” Special Additional Commissioner of Kolkata Police (Crime) Debasish Boral said. Mr. Boral dismissed the possibility of foul play and said the preliminary report of a forensic team did not refer to any explosion.
Rescue operations continue
Rescue operations continued for the second day on Friday at the Vivekananda Road-K.K.Tagore Street intersection in the busy Posta Area of Kolkata, where a portion of an under-construction flyover collapsed on Thursday.
Army teams which carried out rescue operations returned to their bases. Technical and forensic experts visited the site where members of the National Disaster Response Force continued to remove the debris.
“No more victim is trapped or buried expect one body trapped in a truck under the slab. Efforts are on to extricate it. NDRF teams are still at ground zero,” a senior NDRF officer said.
Twenty-three bodies have been recovered and identified. The number of injured stands at 90, and 16 of them are still in hospital.
Till late in the evening, NDRF personnel armed with different equipment were trying to remove the truck trapped under the slab in which one body was seen.
The police have asked residents of at least six buildings near the site to temporarily shift.
