A routine Sunday afternoon turned into a scene of horror in Delhi’s Satya Niketan when a five-storey building being used as a boys’ paying guest accommodation suddenly came crashing down, killing at least seven people and triggering a massive rescue operation.
The building, known as Hostel Daze, stood near Delhi University’s South Campus, directly opposite Sri Venkateswara College. The structure collapsed at around 1:30 pm on Sunday, reportedly while repair work was being carried out in the basement.
The building had a basement and five floors above ground and was believed to be at least five decades old. Within minutes of the collapse, a large quantity of concrete, bricks and debris buried parts of the structure, leaving rescue teams racing against time to locate anyone trapped underneath.
Personnel from the Delhi Police, Delhi Fire Service, National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and Delhi Disaster Management Authority were deployed at the site. Search and rescue operations continued amid concerns that more people could still be trapped beneath the rubble.
The tragedy has also turned the spotlight on the circumstances surrounding the repair work allegedly being undertaken in the basement. Questions are now being raised over the building’s structural condition, the nature of the repair work and whether adequate safety precautions were followed before work began.
Police have registered an FIR against building owner Hariram Bansal and others under Sections 105, 290 and 125(a) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS). Investigators are examining whether negligence, unsafe construction or violations of safety norms played a role in the deadly collapse.
But as rescue teams continued their painstaking search, the building owner became the focus of a separate police hunt.
Delhi Police has formed 10 teams to locate Hariram Bansal, who is currently untraceable following the collapse. The teams include personnel from local district police, Special Staff and other operational units.
Each team is being headed by an officer of Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police rank, underlining the seriousness with which authorities are pursuing the case.
Police teams have reportedly been conducting raids and searches across Delhi, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh in an effort to locate the building owner. A Look Out Circular (LOC) has also been issued against him to prevent him from leaving the country.
Bansal is known to have a residence in Gurugram, Haryana, but police have so far been unable to trace him.
The collapse has once again exposed the risks surrounding ageing buildings being used as accommodation in densely populated parts of the national capital. With students and young workers increasingly dependent on PG facilities, questions over structural safety and regulatory compliance have assumed greater urgency.
The immediate priority remains the search for survivors and recovery of those trapped under the debris. But once the rescue operation ends, investigators will face an equally important task: determining why a 50-year-old building collapsed during repair work—and whether the tragedy could have been prevented.
For the families of those who died, however, the questions are painfully simple: Who was responsible, why were the risks not detected, and could these deaths have been avoided?
The answers may determine whether the Satya Niketan tragedy becomes another grim statistic—or a warning that finally forces authorities to confront the hidden dangers lurking inside Delhi’s ageing buildings.
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