Kolkata warehouse roof collapse: Police seek details from KMC, KoPT
Kolkata: The Special Investigation Team (SIT), which is probing the case of the under-construction warehouse roof collapse at Taratala that claimed 16 lives, has sought further details from the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) and the Kolkata Port Trust (KoPT) authorities.
The warehouse project was underway on land owned by KoPT, which was taken on lease by the warehouse owner, Sambhunath Behra. On the other hand, the plan for the construction was sanctioned by the KMC authorities.
“We have sought details from the KMC on the plans submitted about the land on which the construction was underway and what documents were submitted. The KoPT authorities have been asked whether soil testing was carried out or not,” said a city police officer.
The owner of the warehouse, Sambhunath Behra and Kalicharan Banerjee, the former OSD of former Kolkata Municipal Corporation Mayor Firhad Hakim, have already been arrested in this connection.
City police insiders said that both arrested persons are still not speaking much during interrogation.
In such a situation, the SIT members are examining the documents recovered from Behra Brothers. The sleuths are also trying to figure out whether there was any brokerage angle to the land lease. They are also trying to find whether any time was fixed for the completion of the work.
Earlier, a police complaint was filed at Taratala Police Station against Firhad Hakim and two Trinamool Congress Councillors, namely Anwar Khan and Shams Iqbal, in the disaster case by the Bharatiya Janata Party’s Mazdoor Cell.
A preliminary probe by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the Kolkata Police in the roof collapse case has revealed that a combination of two factors — the use of poor-quality construction material and adopting a flawed casting pattern — led to the mishap, which has claimed 16 lives so far.
Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari has already declared his commitment to ensuring the case is brought to a logical conclusion and that no individual accountable for this incident will escape justice.
He has also accused the former Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress regime of transforming the “City of Joy” into a “City of Deaths” by permitting unlawful constructions in exchange for bribes.