Chennai: A site engineer arrested for Wednesday’s freak accident at St.Thomas Mount had reportedly acknowledged to police that it was a mistake on their part, which resulted in the death of L.Giridharan (30), a motorist. On Wednesday morning, around 10 am, St Thomas Mount police picked up 10 persons from the camp office of M/s Nagarjuna Construction Corporation Limited, the company that constructs the Metro Rail station near Officers’ Training Academy (OTA).
The victim died instantly after an iron scaffolding from the construction site fell on him from a height of about 40 feet. S.Arvind, the site engineer, knew he was in trouble by the time the police picked him up for investigation. “I accept it’s a mistake on our part. We should have been more careful,” Arvind is stated to have told police. The 36-year-old resident of Adambakkam was arrested along with his safety engineers, M.Dinesh (22) of Nagercoil and R.Sudarshan (23) of Kovilpatti.
The three of them were booked under sections 304 (a) (Causing death by negligence) and 337 (endangering life) IPC and remanded to judicial custody for 15 days. According to an investigating officer, Arvind did not even eat anything until he was sent for remand.
“On the other hand, the safety engineers were actually not sure as to why they were being held responsible. They were confused initially,” St Thomas Mount Inspector S.A. Seenivasan said adding that the safety engineers should have made sure that a net was in place to prevent any falling objects. The police registered an FIR based on a complaint by Umar Mansoor (32), who witnessed the accident. He had a miraculous escape.
