A 55-year-old man was crushed to death when the roof of a DDA flat in West Delhi caved in on Sunday night. Police said an FIR has been registered under section 304 a (death due to negligence) against unidentified persons. Meanwhile, sub-divisional magistrate (Punjabi Bagh) Daniel Masih said he had directed the corporation to begin evaluating the building. “I am going to write to the vice-chairman of the Delhi Development Authority, asking them to mark building 219 (where the accident took place) and 220, which were built and allotted by the authority in 1982, as ‘dangerous’,” Masih said. A spokesperson for DDA, however, said the authority had only allotted the land and the building had been constructed by residents themselves. “The roof of flat A-5/219 C in Paschim Vihar — owned by property dealer Ashok Guglani — caved in around 10 pm on Sunday. Pradeep, who was working for Guglani, lived in the flat with his family. He was killed, while his family narrowly escaped. A case has been registered. We are investigation the matter,” a senior police officer said. According to police, at the time of the incident Pradeep was sitting in the hall with his 16-year-old son after returning home from work. His wife was in the kitchen and his daughter was in the balcony. All of a sudden, the roof came crashing down on Pradeep. His son was trapped between the wall and a portion of the roof which fell inwards. Police said neighbours rushed upstairs and pulled the boy out. Pradeep was rushed to Balaji Action Medical Institute where he was declared brought dead, police said. Bansi Sharma, a resident of the building, said, “The SDM came to the area this morning and told us that DDA would send us an eviction notice within six days as the building has now been marked ‘dangerous’. But where will residents of the remaining five flats go? We have such little time.” Neighbours said the building had become decrepit like most DDA structures in the vicinity. The roots of an old peepal tree growing on the terrace were running through the walls of the building all the way to the ground floor, leading to the structure being weakened. In fact, one family had evacuated their flat years ago sensing danger, residents claimed.
