Roof collapse at crematorium: NSA to be invoked against accused

Taking a serious view of the crematorium roof collapse incident in Muradnagar that claimed 24 lives, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Tuesday directed that the National Security Act be slapped against the accused.

Twenty-four people, most of them attending a funeral, were killed and 17 others injured when the roof of a shelter at the cremation ground in Muradnagar collapsed on Sunday.

In a statement issued here, the UP Government said, "Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has directed that the National Security Act be slapped against the accused persons. He also directed that loss of public money during the construction work be recovered from the contractor and engineers."

He also announced that a financial assistance of Rs 10 lakh be provided to each of the kin of the deceased, and homeless affected families be provided a home.

The contractor wanted in connection with incident was arrested from a village near the border of Meerut and Muzaffarnagar districts of Uttar Pradesh, police said on Tuesday.

Contractor Ajay Tyagi, who went into hiding after news of the collapse spread, was nabbed near the Ganga canal bridge of Sathedi village by a joint team of Muradnagar and Niwari police.

The Ghaziabad Police had on Monday arrested Muradnagar Nagar Palika Executive Officer Niharika Singh, Junior Engineer Chandra Pal and Supervisor Ashish as they were involved in the tendering process for building the structure. They were sent to judicial custody for 14 days.