Sudhanshu, the owner of the 'Hostel Daze', a chain of PG accommodations, which was running the boys' facility that collapsed in Delhi's Satya Niketan, had rushed to the site on Sunday after the five-storey building crashed down.
However, he ran away after realising that several Delhi University students had arrived at the spot, The Indian Express reported. He feared that people had started recognising him and he would be beaten.
Sudhanshu was arrested from his friend's house in Burari. Sudhanshu is himself a DU graduate, who had started the PG business along with his friend Shubham Tyagi in 2022.
According to police, he was in charge of the collapsed facility and had installed 16 beds, amenities and looked after maintenance. He used to meet tenants searching for rooms. Sudhanshu is accused of renting the 50-year-old facility despite knowing its poor condition because of a lower price than the market rates.
Accordingly, a rental agreement was made to keep owners and management out of responsibility. A clause stated that the PG owners will not be responsible for any casualty or death of students residing in the facility.
7 people, including 5 students, died in the tragic incident, while five sustained injuries. The police have filed an FIR and arrested the owner of the building, Hariram, his son Mahesh, and his wife Urmila.
Labour contractor Saroj and Sudhanshu have also been arrested. Both have been sent to two-day police custody.
How did the building collapse?
As per the investigations so far, two major issues have surfaced that may have contributed to the structure collapse.
The officials said that the building was undergoing renovation work for over eight days. The basement was getting filled with rain water, and hence the owners decided to fill it up with debris and level it up to the ground floor.
According to news agency PTI, three truckloads of construction debris were already dumped in the basement. The debris had put additional load on the structure. Parallelly, a wall on the ground floor was also removed to create an additional space for a shop.
The alteration in the fragile building disturbed its balance, leading to a collapse. Saroj told the police that he was given a contract by Mahesh and was being paid Rs 2,800 per day.
The FIR reveals that Hriram and his brother illegally expanded the floors atop an already weak structure despite knowing about its fragility.