A case of culpable homicide not amounting to murder was registered on Thursday against a few officials of the Saifi Burhani Upliftment Trust, which owned the building that collapsed in Mumbai’s Bhendi Bazar area in August, PTI reported. Thirty-three people had died after the weak structure crumbled.
The building, which was around 117 years old, had collapsed on August 31, two days after heavy rain flooded Mumbai. The police said that between March 2011 and August 2017, the trust had been aware that the five-storey Husaini building was in a dilapidated condition.
“The Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority had granted them permission to demolish it,” the police said in a press statement. “They had known that a sudden collapse could lead to deaths and injuries. Despite this, they did not get the building vacated.”
Senior Inspector Shirish Gaikwad of the JJ Marg Police Station in Mumbai told PTI that officials of the trust were not named in the case as personal responsibility has not yet been fixed.
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