Three Vedanta officials arrested for chimney collapse

Three officials of the Vedanta Inc were arrested by the Korba police in connection with the collapse of an under-construction chimney in the company-owned Bharat Aluminium Company (Balco) that killed 41 people on September 23. The arrested officials include companys Vice-President and Project Manager Viral Mehta, Assistant General Manager (project) Deepak Narang and graduate trainee engineer Anoop Mahapatra. The police were in search of Mehta since after the incident took place. He was the over-all in-charge of the company 1200 Mw power project where the chimney collapsed. The police party had raided Mehtas native place in Gujarat, but failed to arrest him. The three officials were finally arrested last night in Balco nagar, Korba, Superintendent of Police Ratanlal Dangi said. They would be produced in the court of law later today, Dangi said. The local court of law had earlier rejected the anticipatory bail of three officials. With the arrest of three Vedanta officials, four people have been arrested so far in connection with the incident. The police had earlier arrested Manoj Sharma, the project manager of Gannon Dunkerley and Company Limited (GDCL) that had bagged the contract for chimney construction. The arrests were made following an offence registered by the police under section 304 and 34 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) on the charges of culpable homicide not amounting to murder and common intention.