Police book construction firm, officials for Bengaluru Metro pillar tragedy

BENGALURU: The Govindapura police have filed a First Information Report (FIR) against eight people and entities in connection with the death of a woman and her son after an under-construction Metro pillar collapsed on them near Nagawara on Tuesday.

Based on a complaint from the woman’s husband Lohit Kumar Sulake, the police have named Nagarjuna Construction Company Ltd (NCC), the company’s Junior Engineer Prabhakar, director Chaitanya, Senior Project Manager Mathai, Project Manager Vikas Singh, supervisor Lakshmipathi, Metro Deputy Chief Engineer Venkatesh Shetty and Executive Engineer Mahesh Bandekari.

The police have issued notices to all the accused, directing them to present themselves for inquiry on Wednesday and Thursday. They have also sought a report from IISc, the FSL and technical experts on the cause for the collapse. Based on this, the officials concerned will be arrested.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (East) Bhimashankar Guled said, “A case was registered under IPC Sections 34, 304A, 336, 337, 427 based on the husband’s complaint. On Tuesday, we had not named anyone in the FIR as our priority was to open up the road for traffic and since technical teams have to study the cause for the pillar crash. We had sought information from BMRLC and NCC Ltd about the officials responsible for the work on that section of road, and based on that, we have added the names as accused persons. Notices have been issued to them and we will question them”, he added.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (East) Bhimashankar Guled briefing the media.

In his complaint to the police, Lohit stated that he and his wife are civil engineers and have two children aged 2.6 years, Sushmita and Vihaan. They used to drop off the kids at a daycare facility in Manyata Tech Park. Like usual, on Tuesday too they were proceeding to drop off the children and head to work on his Hero Honda Glamor motorcycle around 10 am from their residence in Horamavu through Hennur Cross when the Metro pillar fell on them near the Axis Bank in HBR Layout. His wife Tejaswini and son lay in a pool of blood, and with the help of locals, they were shifted to a hospital closeby. Doctors there confirmed that the two did not respond to treatment and died. Action should be taken against the site engineers, the Metro officials and the contractor, he stated.

The Govindapura police have named eight persons as accused in the FIR.

Meanwhile, Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Wednesday held at meeting at his home office with the Metro MD, city police commissioner and jurisdictional DCP and directed that criminal cases should be registered against contractor and officials and also to suspend the officials involved. He also said steps should be taken to prevent recurrence of any such incident.