Death toll in the collapse of the five-storey under-construction building in the Garden Reach area of Kolkata has now risen to 11 as another body was recovered from under the debris this morning.
Both the team of KMC and the disaster management group jointly removed the debris last midnight and recovered the body this morning. The deceased was identified as Abdul Rauf Nizami(45) alias Sheru Chacha. His body was taken to the state-run SSKM Medical College & Hospital, where he was declared as brought-dead. It is learnt that the deceased was engaged in installation of electrical connections at the said building, which collapsed on Monday morning. The family members of the deceased said that he used to go to that building every day for his regular activities there.
However, the local people have claimed that the deceased person was virtually the second-in-command of the promoter of building Md Wasim, who has already been taken into custody by Kolkata Police after that mishap. “We, till yesterday, believed that he was alive, but all hope was lost,” said Safi Akhtar, the deceased’s elder brother. The collapse of the building has created controversy relating to the alleged nexus of the real estate promotion circles with the KMC that led to mushrooming of illegal constructions in the Garden Reach area which is adjacent to the Kolkata Port. Even a Division Bench of the Calcutta High Court on Thursday observed that it sounded unlikely that the construction was being raised illegally without the knowledge of the competent administration.
The Division Bench had also directed the West Bengal government to submit an action taken report (ATR) in the matter by the next date of hearing on 4 April.