Police nab contractor with connections to civic body
Ghaziabad: Ghaziabad police have arrested the prime suspect, the accused building contractor, in connection with the death of 24 persons in Muradnagar crematorium. The accused, Ajay Tyagi, along with his accomplice Sanjay Garg was arrested from Satheri bridge in Muzaffarnagar district on late Monday night when he was trying to flee some other place using public transport.
Police said that Tyagi took help from one of his friends to escape after hearing the news of Muradnagar Mishap and his friend left him at Ghaziabad Meerut border from where he took a bus and went to Muzaffarnagar. Earlier he switched off his mobile phone but police traced him through surveillance when he restarted his phone for a while, said police officials.
Dr. Iraz Raja, Superintendent of police (Rural), Ghaziabad said that the accused confessed to have formed gang together to gain economic benefits out of their greed. "During sustained interrogations, the accused told police that the tender for renovation of crematorium was allotted in April 2019 for Rs 55 lakhs. However, the layout of the structure was changed and cleared with the help of Junior engineer (JE) Nagar Palika in order to increase the budget amount for which the JE was given profit amount of Rs 16 lakhs which he shared with other officials. He also confessed that the material used in construction was of low quality while the executive officer, JE, supervisor and other concerned Nagar Palika officials were involved in the scam" the SP said.
The police is now mulling to slap sections of corruption act on all five accused involved in the Muradnagar roof collapse at crematorium for which, the cops are collecting evidences and a subsequent report is being prepared. Meanwhile, the accused Ajay Tyagi was beaten up with footwear by a woman when police took him to hospital for medical examination on Tuesday.
Tyagi, had availed contracts in the name of three firms floated by him — Mahi construction and builders, Krishna associates and M/s Ajay Tyagi constructions and had registered himself with the Ghaziabad Municipal Corporation (GMC) around ten years ago. Officials said he had bagged tenders for 12-15 projects of the GMC worth Rs 8 crore. Of these, 6-7 projects are still under construction.
Following the mishap, GMC Mayor Asha Sharma also wrote to the GMC chief engineer, asking him to get a quality check of all big projects awarded in the past five years and get the work done by different contractors verified.
