Gurugram: Two daily wage workers were killed and one severely injured on Sunday after the periphery wall of an adjacent iron factory allegedly collapsed on them, while they were laying a reinforced iron bar framework for the foundation of a five-storey building, in Behrampur Khatola in Badshahpur’s Sector 73, police said on Monday.
During the collapse, boulders and mud at the construction site of the building, too, fell on them, crushing them to death. According to police, the labourers had dug out earth 10-12 feet below the ground level for the foundation work of the building, which exposed a large section of the adjacent factory’s wall, and led to the collapse, said police.
The deceased were identified as Manzoor Alam alias Tipu (31) and Mohammad Akram (30) — natives of Purnia district’s Kasba and Araria district’s Birnagar Bisaria, Bihar. The injured man was identified as Madan Kumar (30) from Khagaria’s Mansi in Bihar, said police, adding that all of them have been residing in Kanhai village in Gurugram Sector 45 for almost two decades.
According to Akram’s friend Mohammad Imtiaz, the victims remained buried beneath the boulders and earth for almost half an hour. “More than 20 workers were working at the construction site, but following the incident, all of them — including the factory employees — fled,” Imtiaz said.
The contractor, Mohammad Shamim aka Kaila, was the only person at the spot following the collapse, who tried to rope in heavy earth moving equipment to rescue the victims. “However, the operator said he won’t be able to remove debris as a wrong movement could have made things worse,” alleged Imtiaz, adding that after hours of waiting, Shamim started removing earth and stones from the spot with his bare hands. “Shamim could pull out the three from under the debris after 30 minutes of the collapse. They were taken to a nearby hospital, where the doctors declared Alam and Akram dead.”
Madan has suffered multiple fractures in his ribs and right hand, and is undergoing treatment at a private hospital in Sector 10. Akram’s maternal uncle Mohammad Ikram said, “Shamim was the first person to notice that the wall was about to collapse, so he immediately raised an alarm. He had asked the three people to run away from the spot, but they did not get the time to do so.”
Inspector Sandeep Kumar, station house officer (SHO) of Badshahpur police station, said an inquiry in the case is underway. “Family members of the deceased have not alleged any foul play in the incident… Their bodies have been handed over to their families on Monday after autopsy,” Kumar said.
Madan has suffered multiple fractures in his ribs and right hand, and is undergoing treatment at a private hospital in Sector 10.
Akram’s maternal uncle Mohammad Ikram said, “Shamim was the first person to notice that the wall was about to collapse, so he immediately raised an alarm. He had asked the three people to run away from the spot, but they did not get the time to do so.”
Inspector Sandeep Kumar, station house officer (SHO) of Badshahpur police station, said an inquiry in the case is underway. “Family members of the deceased have not alleged any foul play in the incident… Their bodies have been handed over to their families on Monday after autopsy,” Kumar said.
