Three labourers died while three others were critically injured after the slab on which they were working, on the 20th floor of an under-construction building at Malad East collapsed on Thursday, taking them down with it. Gopal Banika Modi (32), Sohan Jachil Rotha (26) and Vinod Keshav Sadar (26) were declared dead on arrival at M W Desai Hospital, Malad, while Jalil Rahim Shaikh (45) and Rupsan Mamim (30) are in a critical condition. The sixth labourer, Mohammed Kalimuddin Shaikh (30), is in a stable condition after being transferred to Cooper Hospital...

The men were working on the 20th floor when the entire shed they were on came crashing down at 11.40 am, as per eyewitnesses, residents of the SRA building and the other labourers. “There were three layers of green net at intervals which broke the fall of two of the labourers but the other three crashed through and died on impact,” said a resident of the SRA building, who also saw a motorcycle rider and a woman escape the slab by a fraction of a second. The residents called up the police and the BMC at 12.09 pm, and the workers were rushed to hospital.

Following the incident, agitated residents gathered outside the society, blocked the road, and demanded the immediate arrest of Shivshakti Builders’ head Devendra Pandey and the supervisor. “The builder had not taken any precautions for the labourers, residents or passersby,” said a resident. “The collapse took place during the day with several people walking past the construction site, who could have lost their lives too. He should be arrested.”...

[The wife of Mohammed Kalimuddin Shaikh] Rahela added that being “mere labourers”, there was neither safety nor compensation if anything went wrong on the job. “In February this year, Mohammed fell while working at this construction site and fractured his waist, but neither the builder nor the government even asked us if we needed help,” she said. “It’s only someone’s death that gets everyone’s attention.”...

The Slum Rehabilitation Authority sent a to Shivshakti Builders on Thursday, directing it to stop all further construction activities on-site immediately for not taking the necessary precautions and safety measures. The builder has been asked to report the current construction stages on site to the authorities immediately.