Contractor, son arrested for child's death in Noida house collapse

A contractor and his son were arrested on Tuesday on charges of causing death by negligence after a child was killed when a porch of an under-renovation house collapsed here, police said.

Luv, 10, was killed when the portion of the three-storey house in Nithari village in Sector 31 collapsed due to the impact of the demolition work going on inside and the rubble fell on the street on Monday, they said.

Three other children Shakeel, 12, Barkha Sharma, 17, and Sonali Yadav (18) were injured in the incident, which officials had said resulted due to carelessness in the demolition work.

A first information report (FIR) was registered at the Sector 20 police station on a complaint from an aunt of Luv, who hailed from Darjeeling in West Bengal. She had accused the house owner, Vijender Awana, contractor Moinuddin alias Minu and his son Sonu, the police said.

Moinuddin, 59, and his son Sonu, 26, were arrested this afternoon from the Nithari T-point, Station House Office (SHO) Manoj Kumar Pant said.

Awana, however, is absconding, and police teams were carrying out searches to nab him, the inspector said.

The father-son duo has been arrested under Indian Penal Code sections 304 A(causing death by negligence) and 288 (negligent conduct with respect to pulling down or repairing buildings), Pant said.

They will be produced in a local court, he added.