Moshi tragedy: PCMC books WTE plant project head, safety officer for culpable homicide

Pune: Five days after the Moshi garbage depot tragedy that killed nine people, the Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) late on Monday lodged an FIR against two officials of Antony Lara Renewable Energy Pvt Ltd, a subsidiary of Antony Waste Handling Cell Ltd, the company operating the waste-to-energy (WTE) plant, accusing them of negligence in enforcing mandatory safety measures.The FIR was registered late Monday at the Bhosari MIDC police station in Pimpri Chinchwad under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), including Section 105 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder), against Ashokkumar Siyaram Sharan Gupta (51), project head of the company's Moshi unit, and Vijay Ramrao Sapkal (38), its safety officer.The complaint was filed by Sohan Madhukar Nikam (45), executive engineer in PCMC's environment department.The accident occurred around 1. 30pm on July 8 when a garbage mound at the sanitary landfill collapsed onto the administrative building of the WTE plant at the Moshi depot, trapping workers inside.Nine people died in the incident, while the rescue operation continued for nearly 84 hours before all those trapped were traced.The complaint states that Gupta and Sapkal were responsible for monitoring the stability of the sanitary landfill, assessing risks arising from heavy rainfall, conducting periodic inspections and ensuring that adequate safety measures were in place to prevent a garbage slide.

Despite being aware that failure to implement these measures could endanger human lives, the two officials allegedly failed to take the required precautions, resulting in a portion of the landfill crashing onto the administrative building and an adjoining area.The collapse killed nine workers and injured several others, the FIR states.Police have invoked Sections 105, 125(a), 125(b) and 3(5) of the BNS. Further investigation is under way.Both accused were inside the administrative building when it collapsed. Gupta, who was on the second floor, escaped with minor injuries after being flung out during the collapse.Sapkal remained trapped beneath the debris for nearly 10 hours and was rescued around 11pm with serious injuries to his legs.The FIR comes a day after the PCMC initiated departmental action against two senior civic officials including chief engineer Sanjay Kulkarni and executive engineer Yogesh Alhat, holding them prima facie responsible for lapses in monitoring safety and compliance at the Moshi waste depot.They were issued show cause notice and removed from their posts.