Kolkata Police Face Challenge Identifying Victims in Warehouse Collapse

Kolkata: The absence of any attendance register or worker records at the under-construction warehouse that collapsed at Transport Depot Road, Taratala, on Wednesday has made it difficult for the investigators to ascertain how many labourers might still be trapped under the rubble, according to a senior Kolkata Police officer.Vertical drilling machines brought from Bihar Regiment were used to dig up three tunnels for carrying out the search operation at the site of the collapse. On Thursday, five bodies were recovered from the spot, taking the total death toll to 11 so far. Besides, two other injured workers, Mannu Kumar and Khaleque Sardar, were rescued and admitted to SSKM Hospital. Despite the hurdles thrown up by the rain, the team continued their search operation.An hour before the rain, an NDRF member, Ramesh Raja, who was on the search operation since 4 am, fell ill and underwent treatment at a makeshift medical camp of the Army. An Army officer said, “Working in the sun, he got dehydrated. He was put on saline.”Weather too posed a stiff challenge on Thursday afternoon. The incessant lightning threatened to strike the site. Then came the torrential downpour that further hampered the search operations and forced the team to scurry for cover.

Before that, they used plastic and tarpaulin sheets to cover the vertical tunnels that were drilled to reach out to those possibly trapped at the basement of the warehouse. Personnel working with sophisticated cutting and life-locating gadgets also had to suspend their operation and run for cover.“There was no attendance register or any system to maintain records of workers engaged at the site. Hence, we are unable to determine the exact number of labourers who were present when the structure collapsed or whether anyone remains trapped under the rubble,” said additional CP (crime) Kunal Agarwal.Another officer said until the entire structure is removed, the search and rescue team will not be sure whether some other persons are stuck underneath. “The labour supplier has a very vague idea that there were 20-30 people there, but he has no concrete figure,” the officer said.The lack of any attendance register or labour records made the task more difficult for the Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the case as well.Agarwal said that while rescue operations were continuing, lack of documentation at the site posed a major challenge. “The labour supplier has a very vague idea that there were 20-30 people there, but he has no concrete figure,” an officer added.The rescue team also used life-detection radar and night-vision camera along with other tools like angle cutter, diamond chain saw, air plasma cutting machine, cordless hammer drills, gas cutter and drone during the search operation.An NDRF member said, “Looking at the overcast sky we could assume the heavy rain, so we made arrangements to cover the tunnels to avoid inundation inside the basement. However, rainwater seeped inside.”A police officer stated in the afternoon, “We could see from above that three bodies were lying, but we cannot pull them out until a few more collapsed portions are removed. The search operation is still on and we are not ruling out the possibility of any living worker stuck in the basement.

So, the covers were necessary otherwise inundation might have turned the condition of any living person, if there, for a worse.”The rescue operation continued in full swing throughout the day. Around 1.56 pm, heavy rain along with lightning struck the area. For almost two hours, the search and rescue operation had to be stalled and the rescue team resumed their operations once the intensity of the downpour decreased.“Had the weather been better, we could have made much progress. Water entered the tunnels we had drilled and our personnel had a tough time. Nevertheless, the rescue ops are continuing and we are trying to locate more persons trapped underneath,” said a senior NDRF official.