Thane building collapse: `Civic officials were bribed`

Three days after a seven-storey building collapsed in Thane, police revealed some shocking information.

Zeenews Bureau

Thane: Three days after a seven-storey building collapsed here, police on Sunday revealed some shocking information. According to Thane Police Commissioner KP Raghuvanshi, the police have proof that the builders of the illegal building had bribed Nationalist Congress Party corporator Hira Patil and Assistant Police Inspector J Sayyed to keep mum on the unauthorised construction. "We found that civic officials were repeatedly bribed. Even police constable was also bribed... After Anti-Corruption Bureau raids, we found Rs 5 lakh from the residence of Deputy Municipal Commissioner Deepak Chavan... Hira Patil, local NCP corporator took bribe from the accused," Raghuvanshi said in a press conference today. "A big racket has been unearthed. Builders were pushing people to stay in the building so that it is difficult to demolish the place," Raghuvanshi added. Notably, the NCP has suspended Patil, who is one of the nine people to be arrested for the building`s collapse. Six people have been arrested in connection with the collapse of a seven-storey building at Thane that left 74 people dead, Maharashtra Home Minister RR Patil said earlier today. They included Thane Municipal Corporation`s suspended deputy municipal commissioner Deepak Chavan, assistant municipal commissioner Babasaheb Andhale, clerk Kiran Madke, municipal corporator Hira Patil and a beat police official, identified only as Sayyed. Jabbar Patel, who worked for Chavan, has also been arrested. The arrests on Sunday were in addition to the earlier arrest of builders Jamil Qureshi and Salim Shaikh. Police are searching for another builder, Adnan Shaikh. A total of 74 people died in the Thursday’s crash, making it the worst-ever building collapse in Maharashtra in the past decade.