Three persons were killed in two similar mishaps at Sangam Vihar and Aman Vihar in the Capital on Saturday afternoon when the roof of the house they were living in caved in, leading to the entire house collapsing.
A four-year-old boy and his 55-year-old grandfather died when the roof of a two-storey building collapsed in the Sangam Vihar area of South-East Delhi.
Satyadev Giri and his grandson Shivam were inside their house when the roof caved in at around 2.30 p.m. on Saturday. Shivam’s mother Rekha and their distant relative Mohammad Iqbal alias Raju were injured in the incident. They are presently undergoing treatment at All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Trauma Centre.
A police official said five fire tenders were rushed to the spot and that it took a search and rescue team three hours to work its work through the rubble, after which four people were evacuated. They were taken to AIIMS Trauma Centre, where Satyadev and Shivam, were declared brought dead.
Police officials suspect the building’s roof weakened during the intermittent rains leading to its collapse. A case of death by negligence under section 304A of the Indian Penal Code has been registered against unknown persons at Sangam Vihar police station and investigation has been taken up. A police officer said the investigation would try to ascertain if the builder or owner used poor quality material for constructing the building.
Meanwhile, in a house collapse in the Aman Vihar area, a 14-year-old Surjeet, who was sleeping in his room in the afternoon died when the roof collapsed. He was declared brought dead to the Sanjay Gandhi Memorial Hospital. A police officer said the house was in a dilapidated state. His family were staying on rent. Surjeet’s parents and relatives were sitting outside the house when the incident happened.