Vivekananda flyover collapse: Kolkata police arrest four engineers

Kolkata: Four engineers, involved in the construction of the Vivekananda flyover which partially collapsed on 31 March claiming 26 lives, were arrested on Thursday taking the total number of arrests in the case to 16. [caption id=“attachment_2715414” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] An aerial view of the site where an under-construction flyover collapsed in Kolkata. PTI[/caption] According to a senior Kolkata Police official, Partha Pratim Bhakta, Prateep Kumar Nath, Mansaram Mondal and Tapan Kumar — all senior engineers of private firms engaged in the construction of the Vivekananda flyover in different ways — were arrested after being grilled at the Kolkata Police headquarters at Lalbazar this afternoon. “These four had different roles. While one was in-charge of the quality control, others were looking after drawing and design, cutting, welding and also as the technical advisor for the construction of the flyover,” the officer said. The four were today summoned for questioning as a process of the investigation into the flyover collapse in which 26 persons were killed. “Their versions did not match with each other. Failing which we had no other option than arresting them,” he said. Earlier, ten officials of the Hyderabad-based construction company IVRCL, responsible for construction of the Vivekananda flyover, and two Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority (KMDA) officials were arrested by the Kolkata Police in connection with their probe into the mishap. Kolkata Police had registered a case against IVRCL under sections 304, 308 and 407 of the IPC and sealed its local office here. In August, a high-powered committee headed by state Chief Secretary Basudeb Banerjee had submitted its report on the collapse. However, the contents of the report were not immediately known. The state government had suspended two engineers of the KMDA who were involved in the construction of the flyover.