A complaint was filed against former Kolkata mayor Firhad Hakim and two other former Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) councilors Anwar Khan and Shams Iqbal on Friday in connection with the collapse of an under-construction warehouse in Taratala that killed 16 people and injured 17 others.
“We have received a complaint against Hakim and two former council members Anwar Khan and Shams Iqbal. The complaint alleges that several illegal structures have been constructed in the area and the role of the three should be investigated. Investigations are ongoing,” the police said.
This comes two days after Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari said in the legislative assembly that the previous Trinamool Congress-led KMC board had sanctioned the depot project despite having a faulty design. He criticized the former mayor without naming Al-Hakim.
The police have already arrested Hakeem’s former officer on special duty (OSD) Kalicharan Banerjee. The city court on Friday sent him to police custody until July 4.
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“The prime minister referred to a document in the council signed by the former mayor and said that no one will be spared. If the former mayor is arrested by 5 pm on Saturday, we will admit that the prime minister really meant what he said. Otherwise, we will understand that it was an attempt to put political pressure on the former mayor to join the rebel camp,” TMC spokesman Kunal Ghosh said.
“Did Ghosh demand arrest of anyone when the Posta Bridge collapsed (during the TMC regime in March 2016)? The government does not act according to what Ghosh says or thinks,” BJP spokesperson Debjit Sarkar said in response.
At least 16 people were killed and 17 others injured when an under-construction four-storey warehouse collapsed in Taratala around 12 noon on Wednesday. Police have arrested six people so far.
People familiar with the developments said that three out of six members of a family from Munger, Bihar state, who had come to work at the site, were killed. The deceased have been identified as Manu Kumar (19), G Kumar (20) and Sirchand Kumar (22), said family member and survivor Manickchand Kumar.
“I and six of our family members – my father, three brothers and my cousin – joined work at the construction site a month ago. My cousin Sirchand and two brothers Manu and Ji were killed. My elder brother Sahid Kumar and my father Rajendra Ram and I were injured. We are returning home,” he said.
“We were working at that time. The entire structure collapsed making a deafening sound. I took this video while I was still trapped… I was pulled by some people,” Manickchand told HT. On Saturday, he shared a video with HT, captured on his mobile phone, minutes after the disaster struck. In the 34-second video, the victim can be seen trapped between collapsed iron structures and bleeding
