Three private firm officials arrested for minor's death at Guwahati flyover site

The Assam police have have arrested the director of a private construction firm and two of its employees for alleged negligence at an under-construction flyover site in Guwahati, where a three-year-old boy lost his life earlier this week.

The child, identified as Sunit Kumar, fell into an uncovered drain at the Arya Nagar flyover construction site on Wednesday. Following a complaint from the boy’s father, police booked Bhartia Infra Projects Ltd (BIPL), which has been awarded the contract for the project.

“We had received a complaint from the boy’s father, accusing Bhartia Infra Projects Ltd (BIPL) of negligence, leading to his son’s death. We held consultations with the Public Works Department (PWD) as it is a civil project, as part of our investigation, and arrested three persons,” the officer said.

The BIPL was given the contract for constructing the flyover.

"BIPL director Avinash Bhartia, safety engineer Kaushik Gogoi and deputy project manager Prasannajit Pathak have been arrested. This incident happened primarily due to their negligence," he said.

The officer said more arrests could be made in the case, with CCTV footage showing several uncovered manholes and drains in the area.

He also said that another incident of a worker dying after being electrocuted and falling about 500 metres from the construction site had been reported recently.

"We had filed a case in the previous incident, too. We are now not considering it an accidental death after Wednesday's incident," the officer added.

Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma had on Thursday directed Chief Secretary Ravi Kota to ensure a satellite survey of all open manholes and uncovered drains in Guwahati, and said necessary action will be taken to cover those.