Woman crushed under debris on Anna Salai: Contractor arrested

CHENNAI: City Police have arrested the contractor who undertook the demolition of the dilapidated building on Anna Salai, that led to the death of a 23-year-old woman walking on the footpath.

The contractor, Abdul Rahman (46) undertakes demolition works often and had not kept safety measures in place, police said. Police investigations revealed that the old dilapidated building was under demolition since Thursday after a new buyer took over the property and took up demolition operations.

While permission was taken from Corporation, the contractor had not taken sufficient safety measures," a senior police officer said adding that on demolition sites near the road, no public movement should be ensured.

Police had earlier arrested the crane owner Balaji and its operator Gunasekaran and the supervisor at site. The deceased, M Padma Priya (23), a native of Usilampatti in Madurai district was working with a consulting firm on Greams Road and was staying with her relatives at Pammal.

As she was walking towards her office about half a kilometer away, the wall collapsed near the Thousand lights metro railway station on January 27. The incident happened around 9 am. While Padma Priya was walking adjacent to the wall, her colleague Vinoth Kumar was on the side of the road when the wall collapsed all of a sudden.

Onlookers rushed to their rescue and secured both of them from the debris. Police and Fire and rescue service personnel moved the injured to the Government Royapettah Hospital, where the woman was declared dead on arrival. Vinoth Kumar survived with injuries.

The contractor had demolished the inside of the building first and layer of outer wall was remaining. The huge wall up to the first floor had covered the demolition taking place on the other side of the building and the pedestrians were unaware of the demolition inside, police said.