Builder, aides made up accident story to hush up worker's death

After a wild goose chase looking for an unidentified vehicle that reportedly killed a construction labourer nine months ago, the Electronics City traffic police found that the death was due to a fall from a building.

It turns out that the owner of the building along with three others cooked up a story that the victim, 18-year-old Milton Halder, was run over by a car. They did this to escape police action for negligence at the site in A K Colony.

The Begur police have arrested building owner Samiulla, construction workers Mohammed Habib and Kondareddy, along with the complainant Bishwajit Das.

The incident had occurred on August 22, 2016. Other construction workers at the spot had said Halder was crossing the road when a car knocked him down and the driver sped away.  Das’ complaint said they were working at the under-construction apartment ‘Honey Dew’ in Akshaya Nagar when the incident occurred.

However, other workers said Halder met with an accident on the afternoon of August 22 and they shifted him to a hospital, where he died.

The traffic police visited the spot and recorded the statements of the witnesses. Efforts were made to trace the vehicle and the driver, but in vain. Senior officials expressed doubts about the statements of the complainant at the crime review meetings. The police then recreated the crime scene. It was then confirmed that the injuries were caused by a fall from a height and not after being hit by a vehicle.

After a thorough re-investigation, it was found that Halder had actually died due to a fall from the building where he worked without proper safety measures.

In order to avoid paying compensation and possible prosecution, the incident was concealed by Samiulla, Habib, Kondareddy and Das.

The police have obtained the court’s permission to change the IPC section for the case to 304-A, causing death by negligence, destruction of evidence and misleading the police by reporting a fake accident.
DH News Service