EOW’s SIT to probe U.P. roof collapse incident

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Wednesday ordered a probe by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) into the Muradnagar roof collapse incident in which 24 people died. SIT will probe the entire incident, including the construction work, Additional Chief Secretary (Information) Navneet Sehgal said, adding that a detailed report has also been sought from the ADG.

“The Chief Minister has taken a serious note of the Muradnagar incident and decided to order a probe by SIT of EOW,” Mr. Sehgal said.

NSA against accused

Twenty-four people, most of them attending a funeral, were killed and 17 others injured when the roof of a shelter at the cremation ground in Muradnagar collapsed on Sunday.

CM Adityanath had directed that the National Security Act be slapped against the accused persons and recovery of loss of public money and the amount of government compensation paid to the bereaved families be done from the erring engineer and contractor. He also announced a financial assistance of ₹10 lakh to each of the kin of the deceased and homeless affected families be provided a house.

The contractor wanted in connection with the incident was arrested from a village near the border of Meerut and Muzaffarnagar districts. Contractor Ajay Tyagi, who went into hiding after the news of the collapse spread, was nabbed near the Ganga canal bridge of Sathedi village by a joint team of Muradnagar and Niwari police.

The Ghaziabad police on Monday had arrested three people and sent them to judicial custody for 14 days.