Two killed, one injured after wall collapses in Ajara town; 2 arrested

Kolhapur: Two people — a teacher (40) and a 13-year-old girl — died on Monday after being crushed under the boundary wall of a two-storey building in Ajara town of this western Maharashtra district.The deceased have been identified as Jyoti Kumbhar (teacher) and Vaishnavi Bhosale (minor girl). Vaishnavi's mother, Lalita, was injured in the accident and hospitalised.A sub-contractor and driver of the heavy machinery, used for the demolition work, have been arrested under sections 105 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder), 106 (1), 281, 125(a) and 125 (b) of the BNS, 2023.The police said the house is owned by a doctor and he had hired a contractor to carry out the demolition of the old structure. The contractor in-turn sub-let the work to Abhijeet Baburao Hukkeri.The police said Hukkeri started the work on Monday morning with the help of the driver — 20-year-old Mithun Chavan, a resident of Vijaypur district in Karnataka. "The house is located near a main market and the demolition work caused strong vibrations that led to the wall collapse. Three passers-by got crushed under the debris," an officer said."We arrested the two accused. The injured woman is undergoing treatment at Gadhinglaj hospital. The work was carried out without adequate safety measures," said Babasaheb Saravade, assistant inspector of the Ajara police station.