NEW DELHI: The Noida Police have made a second arrest in the Greater Noida lift crash case in which eight construction workers were killed, an official said on Sunday.
The arrested person Lavjeet Kumar is said to be the prime accused. He worked as general manager (administration-- commercial) at Girdhari Lal Construction Company.
“He [Lavjeet Kumar] was the signing authority and also responsible for Tower No C 11 and 12. The safety of the lift was under his domain,” the official said.
Sharma was related to tower numbers C-11 and C-12 and the entire responsibility of the safety standards related to the lift was with him.
"They continued to operate the lift despite the rain. This was deliberate negligence on their part, due to which an unfortunate incident took place," the police said in the statement.
The accident took place around 8.30 am on Friday (September 15) at the under-construction site of Amrapali Dream Valley Society, located in Greater Noida West.
According to police, the lift came crashing down from the 14th floor of the building.
State-run National Buildings Construction Corporation was completing the long-delayed project started in 2011 by the now-beleaguered Amrapali Group. The NBCC had hired Giridhari Lal Construction Private Limited for the project.
The four workers who died on Friday were Ishtaq Ali (23) from Bihar’s Balrampur, Arun Tanti Mandal (40) from Banka, Vipot Mandal (45) from Katihar and Aris Khan (22) from Uttar Pradesh’s Amroha.
On Saturday, four more workers — Arbaaz Ali, 19, Kuldeep Pal, 20, Maan Ali, 20, and Mohammad Ali Khan, 18, succumbed to their injuries, while Kaif, 21, remains on ventilator support.
The Noida Police, a day after registering an FIR under relevant sections of the IPC and Contract Labour (Regulation & Abolition) Act, first arrested Devendra Sharma, another general manager of Girdhari Lal Construction.
"The private company has several general managers. Sharma was responsible for construction work on the tower whose lift crashed Friday," Deputy Commissioner of Police (Central Noida) Suniti told PTI.
The police have booked nine people and some others over negligence with respect to the machinery and culpable homicide not amounting to murder.
A financial relief of Rs 25 lakh has been extended to the kin of the eight workers who died and the NBCC is bearing medical expenses of the injured labourer, currently hospitalised in critical condition, an official of the state-run company told PTI.
The NBCC, Gautam Buddh Nagar and the local Greater Noida authorities are separately probing into the matter, officials told PT.
(With additional inputs from online desk)
