Kolkata Police have filed an over 1,800-page chargesheet against seven people in the Garden Reach warehouse collapse case, accusing them of culpable homicide not amounting to murder, attempt to commit culpable homicide and criminal conspiracy. The under-construction structure collapsed on June 24, killing at least 16 people and injuring 17 others.
The special investigation team submitted the chargesheet before Alipore Court on Saturday, 86 days after the warehouse gave way. The collapse brought down a massive roof, tonnes of wet concrete and large steel beams on people at the site.
The seven accused include a former officer on special duty to erstwhile Calcutta mayor Kalicharan Banerjee and Aminur Sheikh, a sub-assistant engineer in the building department of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation. All seven accused have been arrested, with Sheikh being the last to be taken into custody a week ago.
Public prosecutor Sourin Ghoshal said the police had sufficient evidence to begin a custody trial and secure convictions. “The chargesheet has the ingredients of a case of culpable homicide not amounting to murder against the seven accused,” Ghoshal said, according to the report.
Sheikh’s arrest prompted protests by a section of KMC building department engineers. The engineers gheraoed the civic body’s director-general for several hours and demanded his resignation, alleging that the sub-assistant engineer had been made a “sacrificial goat”.
An internal probe by senior KMC engineers had earlier indicated that the structure collapsed after failing to bear the load of three floors whose casting had been completed. Engineers also said the gap between two steel columns was wider than the measurement specified in the approved building plan.
The internal KMC inquiry found that the promoters had deviated from the approved plan and carried out construction without mandatory approvals. Under KMC rules, builders must secure an approved plan before beginning foundation work and inform the civic body when construction reaches the plinth level. The KMC had approved the plan for the structure in January.
Civic body sources attributed the collapse to inadequate supervision and poor construction quality. The KMC had also revoked the licence of architect Supratim Choudhury after departmental proceedings connected to the Garden Reach godown collapse. Choudhury was removed from the civic body’s panel of approved professionals and barred from participating in state government projects.
The case will now proceed before Alipore Court, where the chargesheet and the evidence collected by the special investigation team will be examined as part of the trial process.
