Rabale Police Book 4 After Falling Steel Rods Kill 2 Workers in Airoli

Rabale police have booked a tower crane operator, a site engineer, and the management of two firms after two workers were crushed to death by heavy steel rods at a construction site in Airoli on August 17.

The incident took place on the afternoon of August 17 at the Raheja building construction site in the Mindspace area on Patni Road, Airoli. Heavy iron steel rods were being lifted using a tower crane when the lifting mechanism, including the wire rope assembly, suddenly failed. The falling rods crashed onto workers below, killing Bobby Roy, 41, and Rahul Mishra, 33, on the spot.

Roy was originally from Bihar, while Mishra was a resident of Uttar Pradesh. Both victims had been staying at the labour camp set up at the construction site.

Rabale police initially filed an accidental death case before initiating a probe into the circumstances of the collapse. The preliminary investigation revealed that mandatory safety measures had allegedly been ignored during the lifting operation. Police noted that workers were not shifted to a safe distance from the potential fall zone and that the operational perimeter lacked a barricaded exclusion zone.

Following the inquiry, police registered a case against crane operator Keshav Kamlesh Nishad, 34, site engineer and supervisor Rupesh Prakash Shirsath, 34, and the responsible officials and management of M/s VRB LLP and M/s Gigaplex Estate Pvt. Ltd.

The case has been registered under Section 106(1) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, and Section 304(A) of the Indian Penal Code.

Investigators are currently examining CCTV footage from the premises, assessing the technical condition of the tower crane, and evaluating overall safety compliance at the site to establish individual and corporate liability.