Principal held after school wall collapse kills two children in Noida

Noida: The principal of a private school in which two children were killed and three injured in a wall collapse was arrested here Tuesday, police said.

Two kids, aged 10 and 7, were killed when a wall of the school in Salarpur village collapsed Monday, prompting Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath to order a magisterial-level inquiry.

KM Public School principal Sanjeev Kumar Jha was held on Tuesday near his house in Sector 107 by officials of the Sector 49 police station, they said.

This is the first arrest in the case in which six people have been booked for culpable homicide not amounting to murder, endangering life of others under the Indian Penal Code and for cruelty against children under the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015.

“Working on a tip-off, Jha was held by the team from the gate of Arogya Dham Maharishi Ashram in Sector 107,” Station House Officer Girija Shankar Tripathi, who led the police team, said, adding that searches were underway to nab the other accused.

The wall of the private primary school collapsed at around 9.30 am Monday allegedly due to the impact of some construction activity, involving use of a heavy machine (JCB), in the adjoining plot in Salarpur village, the police had said.

The FIR in the case named school’s principal Sanjeev Jha, its manager Raghvendra Solanki, owner Amit Bhati, his relative Deshraj Bhati and Sumit Bhati (Deshraj’s son) and an unidentified JCB operator.

According to the FIR, the school building was “too old and deteriorated” while the construction work in the plot adjoining it was being done “without any official approval from the authorities concerned”.