New Delhi, Oct 30 : Delhi Home Minister Ashish Sood has ordered a magisterial inquiry into a building collapse in northeast Delhi's Seemapuri area that claimed four lives earlier this month, an official statement said on Friday.
The inquiry will be conducted by the district magistrate (North-East) to ascertain the circumstances and exact cause of the collapse and fix responsibility for any violations or negligence by individuals or government officials, it said.
The four-to-five-storey residential building, located at house no. E-402 in New Seemapuri, collapsed around 3 pm on October 7. The building was constructed on a plot measuring around 20-25 square yards, the statement said.
The preliminary inquiry indicated that demolition work using heavy machinery at an adjacent unauthorised construction site may have triggered the collapse due to vibrations, it said.
Three adjoining structures also suffered major damage and were declared unsafe by the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD). They were subsequently evacuated.
The terms of reference of the inquiry include examining violations of building rules and safety norms by property owners, tenants and private individuals, besides investigating possible lapses by government departments and civic agencies.
The inquiry will also recommend legal action against those found responsible and examine the implementation of the Disaster Management Act, 2005, to suggest measures to prevent such incidents in the future, it mentioned.
"This is a deeply tragic incident that has cost precious lives. We have ordered a magisterial inquiry to investigate every single aspect of this collapse. No guilty person or lax official will be spared. Our immediate priority is to support the affected families, and our long-term goal is to enforce strict structural safety rules so that such an accident never happens again in Delhi," Sood said.
On October 8, the Delhi Police revised the death toll to four after initially reporting the recovery of five bodies from the debris. Police said body parts and remains recovered from the site were yet to be identified through DNA examination to establish whether they belonged to separate victims or those already identified.
The deceased were identified as Gulafsa (21), Haza Bibi (56), Nusrat (33) and a child aged around three to four years whose identity was yet to be established, police said.
Eight injured persons were rescued and taken to Rajiv Gandhi Super Speciality Hospital in Tahirpur, where their condition was said to be stable.
