Thane building collapse: 73 dead, seven arrested including 2 builders

Mangaloretoday/CNN/IBN

Mumbai, April 7: Seven people including the two builders were arrested on Saturday, three days after after a seven-storey building collapsed like a pack of cards in Thane. Seventy three people have died and more than 60 injured in Maharashtra’s worst ever building collapse in decades.

 

Thane Police on Saturday arrested seven people including builders Jameel Qureshi and Saleem Shaikh, the Suspended Deputy Commissioner of Thane Municipal Corporation, the Assistant Municipal Commissioner, the Assistant Sub-Inspector of the local police station and the local corporator.

The officials have been charged with criminal conspiracy while the two builders have been charged with culpable homicide not amounting to murder. All those arrested will be presented in court later on Sunday.

Meanwhile, in what seems to be knee jerk reaction the municipal authorities have gone on overdrive demolishing illegal structures in Mumbra area.

 

There are more than 20 children that died in the tragedy and many more are in hospitals. An embattled administration went on a demolition drive after mounting pressure to take action against illegal buildings in the area, but this reaction has only thrown up more uncomfortable questions.

It took a building collapse and the death of 73 people for the Thane Municipal Corporation to crack the whip on illegal buildings. The big question remains what prevented the Municipal Corporation from taking action before the building came down.