Maha Death toll in Bhiwandi building collapse rises to 20

    (Eds: updates death toll)
    Thane, Sep 22 (PTI) The death toll in the Bhiwandi
building collapse in Maharashtra rose to 20 on Tuesday, with
the recovery of seven more bodies overnight, police said.
    Bodies of a two-and-a-half-year-old boy and a young
couple were recovered 24 hours after the crash, police said.
    The number of those rescued has gone up to 25, with
five more persons being pulled out from the debris, police
said.
    The dead include nine children, among them two
toddlers, an official said. Those rescued are being treated at
hospitals in Bhiwandi and Thane, he added.
    The 43-year-old Jilani building collapsed at 3.40 am
on Monday.
    Two civic officials have been suspended in connection
with the collapse and an offence has been registered against
the building owner, an official said.
    The building in the powerloom town - which is around
10 km from Thane - had 40 flats and around 150 persons lived
there, an official said.
    The building, located at Narpoli's Patel Compound near
Dhamankar Naka, collapsed while the residents were asleep.
    Teams of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF)
and personnel of the Thane Disaster Response Force (TDRF) are
still at the spot as the search operation continues, he said.
    The building was not in the list of dilapidated
structures of the Bhiwandi-Nizampur Municipal Corporation
(BNMC), he said.
    Bhiwandi DCP Rajkumar Shinde said offences under
sections 337,338,304 (2)of the IPC were registered against the
owner of building Sayyed Ahmed Jilani after a complaint by
civic officials. Jilani is yet to be arrested, he added.
    The BNMC suspended two senior officials in connection
with the building collapse. An inquiry committee has also been
set up and will include the assistant town planner, he said.
    Meanwhile, a building resident said most residents of
the building were tenants and included autorickshaw drivers,
vendors and labourers.
    A civic official said the building was served two
notices, one in 2019 and another in February, over alleged
irregularities, but the residents did not leave as the rent
was very low. PTI COR VT
VT VT

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)