Surat building collapse toll hits 7, woman rescued

SURAT: Seven people were found dead and one was rescued after a nightlong search under the rubble of a six-storey residential building that collapsed Saturday in the industrial neighbourhood of Surat's Sachin.
Cops charged the builders - a mother-son duo - with culpable homicide not amounting to murder and arrested an aide. The victims, either industrial workers or their relatives, include five natives of MP's Sidhi, a teenager from Ayodhya and a Surat resident.A 20-year-old woman was found alive in the debris early Sunday and hospitalised.
Ashwin Vekariya, who works for builders Ramila and Raj Kakadiya, was arrested and charged under sections 105 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) and 54 (abetment) of the new Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita that replaced IPC on July 1. Ramila has been "evading arrest" while her son is currently in the US, assistant police commissioner N P Gohil said.
The building named Kailash Raj Residency was constructed in 2016 when Sachin village was within the limits of Pali panchayat. The village became part of Surat Municipal Corporation (SMC) in 2020.
On April 26 this year, SMC issued a notice asking the owners to evacuate the tenants as "severe structural defects" had been found, including cracks in the RCC beams, columns, balconies and slabs. In his statement to police, assistant engineer Mayank Velwan from SMC's South Zone B said there were "visible cracks in the walls and exposed iron rods that made the building unfit to live in".
The cluster is part of Surat's Gujarat Industrial Development Corporation (GIDC) belt that houses textile, chemical, engineering and ancillary units. Many tenants had vacated the building after noticing chunks of concrete coming off and other defects, but the builders and their associates allegedly continued renting out homes to new people without carrying out repairs, police said.