Gurgaon collapse: Builder faces second FIR, 6 others booked

The FIR was registered under IPC sections 417 (cheating), 420 (cheating), 465 (forgery), 467 (forgery of valuable security), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), 471 (using as genuine a forged document), 120-B (criminal conspiracy) and section 10 of The Haryana Development and Regulation of Urban Areas Act, 1975, at Bajghera police station.

Gurgaon Police Commissioner K K Rao said, “An FIR has been registered on the DTP’s complaint.”

This is the second FIR registered against the builder of the Chintels Paradiso. On Friday, on the complaint of the husband of Ekta Bhardwaj, who had died in the collapse, an FIR was registered against the chairman of Chintels, Ashok Solomon, under IPC section 304-A (death by negligence) and 34 (common intention).

Police said Sunday’s FIR was registered on the complaint of the district town planner (DTP), enforcement, R S Bhath. The DTP had submitted a report recommending that an FIR be registered against the developer, structural engineer, proof consultant, architect, and contractor.

The complaint filed by the DTP states that the mishap — in which part of roof slabs of the apartments from the sixth floor to first floor in tower D4 collapsed and fell down — has proved that the certificate of the structural engineer and proof consultant and work of the contractor “is not credit worthy and rather fraudulent”.

“As per provisions of the Haryana Scheduled Roads and Controlled Areas, Restriction of Unregulated Development Act no. 41 of 1963 and the Haryana Development and Regulation of Urban Area Act No. 8 of 1975 and rules framed there under, the licensee, the structure engineer and the contractors are solely responsible for the unfortunate incident,” read the FIR.

The complaint said that “it is apparent that there has been a violation of the provisions mentioned above and accordingly, it is requested to lodge FIR under section 10 and 12 of Act of 1975 and relevant sections of IPC against all directors of Chintels India Ltd, structural engineer, architect, contractor company and its directors who constructed the Towers and against the persons who were getting major addition/alterations on sixth floor as per local enquiry.”

The complaint said that the licences were granted to the directors of Chintels India in 2007 for setting up a group housing colony in Sector 109 in an area measuring 12.306 acres. The building plans of the said housing colony were approved in March 2011 and the occupation certificates were granted by Director, Town and Country Planning, in August 2016 and June 2017.

The complaint added that after examination of facts of the case according to the office of DTP, the licensee, the structural engineer, architect and proof consultant, who had supervised the construction and structural designs had stated that the workmanship and all the material used for construction meet the specifications laid down in National Building Code.

In an official statement on Saturday, Chintels had said, “The Paradiso group housing project was contracted to the reputed Bhayana Builders after a stringent due diligence process for construction. We have submitted the contract copy to the DTP, Gurugram. It clearly specifies the highest quality of material and workmanship to be used for the project. As per our records submitted by the contractor, the best of materials from well-known players have been used for the project, details of which have also been shared with the investigating authorities. We ourselves will take up the matter very seriously so that not just us but other developers and buyers do not face a similar situation in future. Even after initiating the handover of the project from 2017, we have been available for any resident complaints and many residents have been appreciative of the same. Affected residents are currently being accommodated in our sister projects with our staff monitoring the situation. We will duly compensate (those) affected.”