Builder of Karachi's collapsed building arrested from Punjab: sources

KARACHI: The builder of Karachi’s collapsed building in Gulbahar area has been arrested by police during a raid in Punjab, citing sources, ARY News reported on Wednesday.

Police sources told ARY News that the builder of the collapsed building due to illegal construction of multiple storeys identified as Javed alias ‘Javed Chief’.

The sources revealed that Javed Chief was also present along with his family members at the scene when the building collapsed where the builder and his son had also sustained serious injuries in the incident that had claimed at least 27 lives so far and 23 persons were left seriously wounded.

It emerged that the wounded persons were shifted to a hospital and later Javed Chief fled to Punjab over fear of his arrest.

The officials of District Central Police have traced the location of the builder and a raid team arrested him from Punjab.

Read: Weak foundation led to building collapse incident in Gulbahar: SBCA report

The accused person will be shifted to Karachi on Wednesday night.

Earlier in the day, major headway has been made in investigations pertaining to the building collapse in Rizvia on March 5 as Sindh Building Control Authority (SBCA) officials have been taken under arrest by local police in relation to negligence shown with regards to the incident.

According to details, three SBCA officials have been detained, the detainees also include the deputy director of the institute whose name has been revealed as Sarfaraz.

The other two officials arrested were revealed as assistant director Maqsood Qureshi and building inspector Irfan Ali.

The authorities had also booked the builder in a case at Rizvia police station, however, no concrete efforts were made to lay the responsibility of the incident on anyone.