A couple working as labourers at a construction site in Gurgaon’s Sohna was killed on Sunday afternoon after a newly constructed soil-retention wall collapsed on them, the police said.
The police identified the victims as Prashant Kumar, 28, and Lakshmi Devi, 24, and said they were daily-wage workers building a basement at a site in the Sohna Dhani village area.
According to the police, the couple was engaged in piling work at the basement when a brick wall built to prevent soil cave-ins gave way between 1.30 pm and 1.45 pm, likely due to structural failure.
Fellow workers raised an alarm and attempted to rescue the couple by clearing the debris with their hands, the police said.
Kumar was rushed to the Sohna sub-divisional hospital, but due to severe injuries, he was referred to the civil hospital in Gurgaon’s Sector-10A. He succumbed en route to the hospital. Devi died on the spot and was formally declared brought dead at the Sohna civil hospital.
The couple hailed from Lalitpur district in Uttar Pradesh and stayed in a rented accommodation in Sohna. “Their families reached the city late Sunday night. They are yet to give their statements. Based on that and if they file a complaint, we will take a call on whether to file an FIR or go about an inquiry,” Police Inspector Parveen Malik, Station House Officer of Sohna City police station, said on Monday.
Last month, two labourers had died and two others had been injured in a during ongoing excavation work at the Old Faridabad Railway Station.
A case of negligence was filed against the construction firm in this incident, as the labourers had allegedly warned the contractor earlier about the possibility of a soil collapse.
