Bengaluru building collapse: Death toll rises to 5, builders and architect booked

Two days after a five-storey building came crashing down in Bengaluru’s Bellandur area, the death toll has risen to five.

According to a report in The Times of India, two more bodies were found amidst rubble on Thursday night.

A team of NDRF personnel had rescued as many as nine persons on Wednesday, when the under-construction building collapsed.

The New Indian Express reports that a sniffer dog indicated that one more person was trapped in the debris.

Seven builders and the architect responsible for the building were booked for culpable homicide on Thursday.

The BBMP filed a complaint with the HSR police demanding action against the builders for flouting norms during the construction of the said building. According the officials, the sanctioned plan was for ground-plus-two floors, but the structure that was being built was ground-plus-four-floors.

Bylaw violations and using of substandard materials for construction are said to have caused the building to collapse.

Reports say that DCP Southeast MB Boralingaiah confirmed the arrest of Srinivasa Reddy, who is one of the partners of the project.

“Reddy is important to the investigation as he floated the plan for the building and got the partners. He was also taking care of construction on behalf of the partners,” the DCP was quoted as saying.

The report points out that despite BBMP officials allowing the construction to come up, no officials have been named in the complaint filed by the BBMP. 

An assistant engineer Raghavendra and assistant executive engineer Kodanda Reddy were suspended on Wednesday for allegedly failing to stop the construction on time.