Kolkata flyover collapse: Two KMDA officials arrested in connection with tragedy

Kolkata: Two KMDA officials were on Tuesday arrested by Kolkata police in connection with the partial collapse of an under-construction flyover which left 26 persons dead and at least 89 injured. [caption id=“attachment_2705986” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] An aerial view of the site where an under-construction flyover collapsed in Kolkata. PTI [/caption] With Tuesday’s arrests, the total number of persons arrested in the case reached 12, a senior officer of Kolkata Police said. Priyatosh Bhattacharyya, Chief Engineer AD Sector, KMDA and Santanu Mandal, Executive Engineer, AD Sector, KMDA were arrested on Tuesday evening, he said. “Our investigations showed that these two persons have certain roles in connection with the March 31 mishap at Posta in Burrabazar area. There are a few more people who are also involved. They are likely to be arrested,” another officer of the Force told PTI. Kolkata Police had arrested IVRCL Director Operations Gopal Krishnamurthy, Deputy General Manager of Project Monitoring Cell SK Ratnam, Assistant General Manager Mallikaarjun Rao, IVRCL Assistant Vice-president of Project Monitoring Cell (PMC) and administration of the Eastern Region Ranajit Bhattacharjee in connection with the 31 March collapse. Also arrested were IVRCL Assistant Manager Debjyoti Majumdar, civil execution of IVRCL Niloy Roy, Structure Manager Pradip Kumar Saha, Project Manager Tanmoy Sil and senior engineers Shyamal Manna and Bidyut Manna. Incidentally, earlier on Tuesday, Kolkata Police submitted the first charge sheet in connection with the mishap at a city court. However, murder charge against the ten officers of the construction firm IVRCL were dropped from the first charge sheet. Instead, the ten were charged under IPC sections 304 (Punishment for culpable homicide not amounting to murder), 308 (Attempt to commit culpable homicide), 427 (Mischief causing damage to the amount of fifty rupees), 34 (Acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) in the over 2000-page charge sheet.