Thane building collapse: eight arrested, to appear in court today

Five more persons, including anassistant municipal commissioner and a NCP corporator, were on Sunday arrested in connection with the building collapse in Thane district, police said. With this, the total number of arrests has gone up to eight. The five arrested persons are Assistant Municipal Commissioner Babasaheb Andale, constable S Sayeed, local NCP corporator Hira Patil, Thane Municipal Corporation clerk Kisan Madke and collection agent Jabbar Patel, they said. On Saturday, police had arrested developers - Jamil Qureshi and Salim Shaikh - involved in the construction of the illegal seven-storey building, which collapsed on Thursday. Suspended Deputy Municipal Commissioner Deepak Chavan was also arrested on Saturday, they said. All the eight are being produced in a Thane court on Sunday. The arrested persons have been booked under relevant sections of IPC, including sections 304(A) (causing death by negligence), 337 (causing hurt by act endangering life or personal safety of others), 308 (attempt to commit culpable homicide), police said. Civic authorities yesterday pulled down some godowns in the vicinity and two more illegal buildings which had come up near the ill-fated building at Shil Phata area in Thane district.