Thane building collapse: Two more arrested

Two more people have been arrested in connection with the fatal Thane building collapse, which killed 74 people including 18 children. IBN-Live reported that with the arrest of suspended Assistant Municipal Commissioner of the Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC) Shyam Thorbole and Hadis Ulla Chowdhury, a partner of the builders,  the number of people of police custody in connection with the tragedy was now at 15. [caption id=“attachment_696146” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  A scene from the Thane building collapse. PTI[/caption] On Tuesday, police had arrested Executive Engineer Subash Rawal and Deputy Engineer Ramesh Inamdar in connection with the incident. Builders Abdul Salim Aziz Siddiqui and Jameel Ahmad Jajaluddin Shaikh, who constructed the structure, are also among those arrested. Farukh Abdul, an architect, and journalist Rafiq Daud Kamdar, said to be a conduit for officers, were held on Monday by the Thane crime branch, which is probing the crash. Three days after the building collapse the Thane police had said that the NCP corporator and the Assistant Police Inspector in the area were bribed. “Rs 5 lakh was recovered from the suspended police inspector,” he said. Earlier, nine people including suspended Deputy Municipal Commissioner Deepak Chavan, Assistant Municipal Commissioner (AMC) Babasaheb Andhale, Municipal Corporation clerk Kiran Madke, NCP corporator Hira Patil, policeman Sayyed, estate agent Jabbar Patel and building material supplier Afroz Alam Ansari were arrested. “This incident has also shed a light on the government-builder nexus” the Thane police commissioner had said. He had said that the anti-corruption bureau (ACB) is investigating the case and everyone involved in the building construction, even if they were government officials, will be brought to justice. On Saturday, builders Jamil Qureishi and Salim Sheikh were held from Uttar Pradesh and Thane. A day after, all the nine were remanded to police custody till 20 April. IBN-Live reported that Shyam Thorbole was arrested on January 23 by the Thane’s ACB unit for allegedly accepting a bribe of Rs 1 lakh from a complainant at Diva. Thorbole was later out on bail and was under the police scanner. With inputs from PTI