The collapse of a paying-guest hostel building in Delhi’s Satya Niketan is a tragic tale of a family’s greed. An investigation would reveal that a major villain in this harrowing story is the corrupt conduct of the administrative system—a system that thrives at the local level under the patronage of politicians. Accidents such as collapses or fires in buildings constructed by brazenly flouting building regulations are nothing new in Delhi or nearby areas. This persists because there is no provision to hold the officials at the helm of the system accountable.
Meanwhile, the Delhi Police has registered an FIR regarding the hostel building collapse in Satya Niketan. The owners are accused of adding extra floors to a decades-old building, despite knowing that its foundation was too weak to bear the additional load. The arrested owner, 81-year-old Hariram Bansal alias Gupta, has been remanded to judicial custody for 14 days by the court. His wife, 75-year-old Urmila Gupta, has also been sent to judicial custody for two weeks, while their son, Mahesh Gupta, has been placed in police custody.
By the time this report was written, 12 people had been pulled out from the debris of the collapsed building; seven of them had died. Five of the deceased were students.
According to details of the FIR registered in this case, the building owners—Hariram Bansal alias Gupta and his brother… Allegedly driven by the desire to earn higher rent, four additional floors were constructed atop an old building. Named ‘Hostel Daze,’ the structure comprised a ground floor plus four additional stories. When it collapsed on Sunday, seven people lost their lives, and several others were injured.
The building was approximately 50 years old. Its owners had recently renovated it and, capitalizing on its proximity to Delhi University, converted it into a ‘paying guest’ facility. According to the FIR, the owners were aware that the building’s aging foundation could not withstand the additional load. Despite this, construction of the extra floors was allegedly allowed to proceed.
The FIR states that the additional floors and construction work placed immense strain on the building’s structural integrity and load-bearing capacity, causing the decades-old structure to buckle under the excessive weight. The consequences were catastrophic; the building suddenly collapsed, trapping many people beneath the debris. Construction work was underway in the basement at the time of the collapse, and the basement had also accumulated rainwater.
At least 12 people were pulled from the rubble between Sunday and Monday evening. Seven of them died. The seven deceased include five students: Abhishek (20), Yuvraj Soni (20), Pawan (17), Arpit (19), and Akshat Singh Yadav (18). A 75-year-old laborer, Surendra Singh, also lost his life. The identity of the seventh victim had not been established at the time of writing.
The building that collapsed in Satya Niketan was registered in the name of Urmila Gupta, wife of retired Indian Air Force Sergeant Hariram Gupta (81). Hariram Gupta and his son, Mahesh Gupta, managed its operations. Notably, the electricity connections for two of the five floors were registered in Hariram’s name. Hariram Gupta runs a hardware and paint shop. Before starting the business, he had retired from the Air Force.
