Goa building collapse: Two senior officials held

Goa Crime Branch today arrested two senior government officials in connection with last month’s building collapse that left more than 30 people dead.

Additional District Collector (North) Dipak Desai and Deputy Collector (Bicholim) Pradip Naik were placed under arrest by the crime branch, which had been questioning them for the last two days.

Superintendent of Police (Crime Branch) Karthik Kashyap confirmed the arrests.

Both the officers were earlier chief officer of Canacona Municipal Council and had signed various permissions for the controversial building complex.

A senior crime branch official said these officials were responsible for giving occupancy certificate for the project, where more than 30 workers were killed after the five—storey under—construction building came crashing at Canacona on January 4.

The crime branch has already arrested three government officers — deputy town planner Prakash Bandodkar, chief officer Prashant Shirodkar and municipal engineer Ajay Desai — during the course of probe in the case.

A builder and directors of Bharat Realtors and Developers Private Limited, who were booked by police in the case, are still on the run.