Gurugram building collapse: Rescue operation on to save trapped couple

Gurugram: Rescue operations continued on Friday in Chintels Paradiso, a residential society in Gurugram’s Sector 103 where a portion of a building has collapsed, to safely evacuate a couple who are still trapped in the building.

The couple, identified as a retired bureaucrat Arun Srivastava and his wife, have been stuck on the first floor of the building and rescue teams were trying to get them out, officials said.

The roof collapsed on Thursday evening during a repair work on the sixth floor of Tower-4 of D-block.

According to a senior police official, two persons were declared dead.

Rajesh Bhardwaj, whose wife Ekta Bhardwaj (31) died in the incident, filed an FIR against Ashok Solaman, Managing Director of Chintels, the developer and the contractor of the construction, at the Bajghera police station under the relevant sections of the IPC.

Bhardwaj in his complaint alleged that due to the incident his wife got fatal injuries and passed away at around 7 p.m. in a hospital. The victim was inside her flat when the incident took place.

“In connection with the incident, an FIR has been registered and further probe is underway,” Deepak Saharan, Deputy Commissioner of Police (west) said.

On Friday, Deputy Commissioner, Gurugram, Nishant Kumar Yadav, said that an Additional Deputy Commissioner (ADC), Vishram Kumar Meena will investigate the incident.

Yadav, while interacting with the reporters late on Thursday evening, said that “the ADC will also include the officers of the concerned departments and representatives of the society in the investigation”.

The officials said, only the first, second and fourth floors were occupied, the rest of the floors were empty.

Meanwhile, some residents have alleged that they had raised several issues, including the structural integrity of the building in the past and lodged multiple complaints too but nothing had happened.

Sonam Arora, a resident, tweeted: “A portion of a balcony in a tower had fallen in July last year, and we had lodged complaints with the concerned authorities, but no action was taken”.

The Chintels Paradiso condominium has nine towers, comprising 530 apartments and 420 families are living in it.

Chintels Paradiso project was launched in 2011 and the possession to property owners was given in 2018. (IANS)