Judicial custody of Pune wall collapse accused extended

A local court on Saturday extended till July 20 the judicial custody of two builders who were arrested in connection with recent the wall collapse incident in Kondhwa area of Pune in Maharashtra.

Vivek Agarwal and Vipul Agarwal were arrested on June 29, the day a portion of a 22-ft-high compound wall of a housing society collapsed on adjoining shanties of construction workers, killing 15 and injuring at least three people.

An FIR had been registered against eight people, including builders, site engineer and construction supervisor.

All of them have been booked under section 302 (murder) and 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis had ordered announced an ex-gratia of Rs 5 lakh to the kin of the people killed in the wall collapse and ordered an inquiry.

Bihar government had also announced a compensation of Rs 2 lakh for kin of the victims and Rs 50,000 for the injured who hailed from the state.

Those killed in the mishap were labourers from Bihar and Bengal, Pune District Collector Naval Kishore Ram had said.