The 23-hour-long rescue operation, kicked off following the collapse of a four-storey building at Ullawas village in Sector 61 here, was called off early on Friday after the recovery of all seven bodies.
Post-mortem conducted
The remains were handed over to the families after post-mortem. However, Gurugram Police spokesperson Subhash Boken said they have not made any arrests in the case yet and the matter is being probed.
The building owner and contractor have been named as accused in the case, Mr. Boken said.
Assistant Divisional Fire Officer I.S. Kashyap told The Hindu that the operation was called off around 3 a.m. “Since only seven persons were trapped under the debris as per the locals, the rescue operation was called off after the recovery of the seventh victim’s remains,” he said, adding that removal of debris is the responsibility of building owner Daya Ram.
The identities of five of the deceased were established on Thursday.
Victims identified
The remaining victims were identified as Pradeep Kumar (23) and Anurag (18), both from Uttar Pradesh. Three of the deceased belonged to Bihar, while the rest were from Uttar Pradesh. Three of them were masons, three were electricians and Mohit, who was a teenager, worked as a security guard. His father Joginder was away at work when the building collapsed.
An FIR has been registered in the case on charges of causing death due to negligence, negligent conduct with respect to repairing buildings and common intention under the Indian Penal Code.
Complainant Joginder said in the FIR that Daya had added two extra floors to the dilapidated structure “in his greed for rent and used sub-standard material in connivance with the contractor”, leading to the tragedy.
Deepak Mathur, who conducted the post-mortem, said the victims had sustained massive injuries and died within minutes of the collapse.
Meanwhile, North Gurugram SDM Sanjiv Singla said an inquiry will be formally initiated on Saturday and he will speak to officials of various agencies, including the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram and the Department of Town and Country Planning, to determine who was responsible for the incident.
