Sawan Park building collapse: Policemen in plainclothes keep close watch on houses of accused

Police personnel in plainclothes have been deployed outside the residence of the three men booked in connection with the building collapse incident in northwest Delhi's Ashok Vihar that killed seven people, a senior official said Thursday.

Family members of the three accused -- Dharmender, his business partner Sachin and the latter's father Roshan Lal -- have also been questioned but they said they have no clue about the trio's whereabouts, he added.

"We have deployed policemen in plainclothes outside the residence of the accused. They stay in the same locality where the incident happened on Wednesday morning. We are also trying to identify their relatives, whom they could have contacted," the officer said.

It is suspected Dharmender owned other buildings in the area as well but that can be ascertained only after he is nabbed.

Sanjeev Gupta, the owner of a shop on the ground floor of the building that collapsed, had filed a complaint online with the MCD about the dilapidated condition of the building in August last year.

Gupta had alleged it was only after a year and 13 days that the MCD officials inspected the building and said it was in a bad condition, the officer said.

"We are probing whether their negligence was in any way responsible for the incident," he added.

The five-storey "weak" building had collapsed Wednesday, three weeks after the 20-year-old structure in Sawan Park was "inspected" by a municipal team following complaints.

The deceased were identified as Seema (24), her children Ashi (three) and Shaurya (two), her brother-in-law Laxman (25), brothers Rajnesh (four) and Sumnesh (12) and Munni Devi (35).

Five persons -- Nisha, Munni Devi's husband Raj Bahadur and their guests Kamla Shankar and Vijay, Seema's sister Manju-- are hospitalised and their condition is stated to be stable, police said.

Police have registered a case under IPC Section 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder), punishable with a maximum jail term of 10 years, against the trio, who had rented out the building in Ashok Vihar.