Death Toll Climbs to 8 in Bengaluru Building Collapse Case

Bengaluru: Continuing their search from Tuesday evening for missing or persons trapped under the debris in Babusapalya, Hennur of Bengaluru city in an under construction structure case, rescue personnel belonging to NDRF, Fire and Emergency Services and police exhumed seven bodies on Thursday taking the death toll to 8. However, police said Gajendra and Yelumalai are missing and rescue operations are underway.

It may be recalled here that on Tuesday a six floor under construction building in Hennur collapsed and several construction workers were trapped under the debris. The rescue teams recovered the body of Armaan (26) on Tuesday evening and he belongs to Bihar.

Police gave the names of the deceased as Ran Kirupal (35) a native of Bihar, Mohammad Sahil (19) also from Bihar, Solo Paswan a native of Bihar, Tulasi Reddy and Pulchan Yadav, both from Andhra Pradesh, Satya Raju (25) a native of Tamil Nadu and Manikantan also from Tamil Nadu.

Among those rescued by the rescue teams include- Jagamma, Nagaraju, Ramesh Kumar, Okil Paswan, Armaan and Ayaan rescued from under the debris have been treated at a hospital in Bengaluru. The identities of other rescued persons, as per police, are Armaan, Zeeshan, Mohammad Sahil, Rasheed, Shitare, Altaf, Sohil and Pradeep Reddy.

In order to find out the lapses which led to the building collapse, Lokayukta Justice B.S. Patil along with Upa Lokayukta-1 K.N. Phaneendra and Upa Lokayukta-2 B. Veerappa visited the site of building collapse on Wednesday and gathered details on the under construction building collapse. Lokayukta registered a suo motu case with regard to the structure collapse incident.

The building is owned by Muniraju Reddy a native of Andhra Pradesh and his son Mohan Reddy a resident of Malleshwaram in Bengaluru city.

Initiating action against Horamavu sub-division Assistant Executive Engineer K. Vinay, officials concerned of Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) placed Vinay under suspension on Wednesday over building collapse on a report submitted by Zonal Commissioner (Mahadevapura).

Vinay’s suspension order stated the AEE failed to initiate action to remove portions of the building construction in violation of building bye-laws led to the death of 8 persons.

But, Bharatiya Janata Party MLA Basanagouda Patil Yatnal wanted suspension of Zonal Commissioner (Mahadevapura) holding him responsible for sanctioning of building plan, checking whether all norms are followed and checking deviations, if any, from the allotted plan.

Yatnal asked the State Government to set a precedent that nobody will be spared for lack of accountability and failure to supervise.