5 dead, 28 injured as 3-storey building collapses in Lucknow
Lucknow, Sep 7: Five people died and 28 more were injured when a three-storey building housing godowns and a motor workshop collapsed in the Transport Nagar area here on Saturday evening, officials said.
Police said the building was constructed around four years ago and some construction work was underway at present. Most of the victims were working on the ground floor when the incident occurred at 4:45 pm.
According to the information provided by the office of the Uttar Pradesh Relief Commissioner, the injured have been rushed to various hospitals in the district, including the Lok Bandhu Hospital.
Five people have died in the collapse and 28 others, including five women, have been injured, the officials said, adding that almost everyone in the building has been accounted for but a rescue operation is underway to ensure there is no one else under the debris.
Akash Singh, who works in a medical godown in the building and was among the injured, said they had seen that a pillar of the building had developed cracks.
"We had come down to the ground floor because it was raining. We noticed that a pillar of the building had developed a crack. Suddenly the entire building collapsed over us," he said.
The deceased were identified as Pankaj Tiwari (40), Dheeraj Gupta (48), Arun Sonkar (28), Raj Kishore (27) and Jasmit Singh (41).
According to the officials, the building had a motor workshop and warehouse on the ground floor, a medical godown on the first floor and a cutlery warehouse on the second floor.
Defence Minister and MP from Lucknow Rajnath Singh spoke to the district magistrate regarding the incident and took stock of the relief work and the treatment of the injured.
"My deepest condolences to the bereaved families of those who lost their loved ones in this accident. Along with this, I wish for the speedy recovery of all the injured," he posted on X.
Senior police and administrative officials are on the spot to oversee the rescue operations.
A senior district administration official said the rescue effort is now focusing on ensuring that nobody is left behind buried in the rubble.
"Rescue teams from the National Disaster Response Force and State Disaster Response Force have been deployed to the scene and are working to extricate the trapped individuals," Relief Commissioner G S Naveen Kumar said.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has taken note of the situation and is monitoring the rescue efforts closely. He has also issued directions to ensure free treatment of the injured.
On receiving information about the incident, BJP metropolitan president Anand Dwivedi reached the site, inquired about the accident and assured the injured and their family members of every possible support.
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Broken relationships don't automatically amount to abetment of suicide: SC
New Delhi (PTI): Broken relationships, while emotionally distressing, do not automatically amount to abetment of suicide in the absence of intention leading to the criminal offence, the Supreme Court on Friday said.
The observations came from a bench of Justices Pankaj Mithal and Ujjal Bhuyan in a judgement, which overturned the conviction of one Kamaruddin Dastagir Sanadi by the Karnataka High Court for the offences of cheating and abetment of suicide under the IPC.
"This is a case of a broken relationship, not criminal conduct," the judgment said.
Sanadi was initially charged under Sections 417 (cheating), 306 (abetment of suicide), and 376 (rape) of the IPC.
While the trial court acquitted him of all the charges, the Karnataka High Court, on the state's appeal, convicted him of cheating and abetment of suicide, sentencing him to five years imprisonment and imposing Rs 25,000 in fine.
According to the FIR registered at the mother's instance, her 21-year-old daughter was in love with the accused for the past eight years and died by suicide in August, 2007, after he refused to keep his promise to marry.
Writing a 17-page judgement, Justice Mithal analysed the two dying declarations of the woman and noted that neither was there any allegation of a physical relationship between the couple nor there was any intentional act leading to the suicide.
The judgement therefore underlined broken relationships were emotionally distressing, but did not automatically amount to criminal offences.
"Even in cases where the victim dies by suicide, which may be as a result of cruelty meted out to her, the courts have always held that discord and differences in domestic life are quite common in society and that the commission of such an offence largely depends upon the mental state of the victim," said the apex court.
The court further said, "Surely, until and unless some guilty intention on the part of the accused is established, it is ordinarily not possible to convict him for an offence under Section 306 IPC.”
The judgement said there was no evidence to suggest that the man instigated or provoked the woman to die by suicide and underscored a mere refusal to marry, even after a long relationship, did not constitute abetment.
