The police on Friday arrested eight persons in connection with the accident at the construction site in Drumla Estate, Coonoor, which left four construction workers dead on Thursday. Police officials confirmed that the former president of Edappally panchayat was among those booked for criminal negligence.
Police sources said that eight persons have been arrested so far and remanded to judicial custody. They were identified as Massey Dass (43), contractor of Alpha Construction Company, J. Jitheesh from Coonoor, N. Karthikeyan (44), general manager of a garment exporting company and owner of the cottage near which the accident occurred, Y. Raja (40), site engineer, G. Hariharan (25), chief engineer, N. Jayakumar and N. Ranjith, site supervisors, and V. Murugesan (35), sub-contractor.
Police sources also said that they were on the lookout for five others. Former panchayat president of Edappally has also been named as an accused in the first information report. The police did not wish to disclose the names of the remaining accused as investigations into their roles for negligence were still going on. All 13 persons have been booked under sections 304(A) (causing death by negligence) and 338 (causing grievous hurt by act endangering personal safety of others) of the Indian Penal Code.
Speaking to The Hindu , P. Sankar, District Collector, The Nilgirs, said the Coonoor RDO and panchayat officials have been asked to look into the proposal of the construction project, and investigate whether any guidelines have been violated, or whether construction at the site had differed from those outlined in the original plan.
The administration was also looking into whether any explosives or heavy equipment was used to blast rocks near the Drumla Tea Estate. “If we find violations, we can even cancel their building licence,” said Mr. Sankar.
