New Delhi
His arrest comes days after the police arrested his business partner and other PG operator Sudhanshu Loveneesh, who leased the building from its owners. “The two will be jointly interrogated. We have to establish a sequence of events. As per our initial enquiry, both the men had been informed by a labourer that the structure of the building is weak and any repair work will be a risk.
Police on Friday arrested 27-year-old Shubham Tyagi, one of the operators of Hostel Daze paying guest (PG) accommodation, who has been on the run since September 6, when the five-storey building in Satya Niketan collapsed and left seven people dead. Police said Tyagi and Loveneesh had been running Hostel Daze from the Satya Niketan property since 2022. The building owner and his brother had constructed four illegal floors on the nearly 50-year-old structure despite allegedly knowing that its foundation could not bear the additional load, according to the FIR. A labour contractor hired by building owner Mahesh Gupta told investigators that a plumber, who visited the spot around 90 minutes before the collapse, asked him not to break the wall.
Police said they had been conducting raids in Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana to trace Tyagi. Investigators said they are checking Loveneesh’s phone to identify people he may have called or texted to help Tyagi evade arrest, a senior police officer said. But they did not take any action,” the officer, who did not wish to be named, said. Investigators said they will also get Tyagi’s phone forensically examined to ascertain the people he had contacted while trying to escape and also the communication between the two operators, besides details of the repairs. Police said they will now cross-question all the accused. The contractor, identified as Sanoj Kumar, allegedly told the plumber that he had been instructed by his employer to carry out the work and would have to do it, another senior police officer, who did not wish to be named, said. Police said Loveneesh claimed that Tyagi and he had raised safety concerns about the construction work six to seven days before the collapse with Mahesh Gupta, but he reportedly told them that only minor work was being carried out.
Tyagi surrendered at the South Campus police station on Friday morning, following which he was arrested and produced in court, and was sent to two days of police custody.
