Tribal woman dies at Mumbai construction site, owner bribes family into silence

A woman labourer 22 lost her life while working at a construction site in Naigaon East According to the police the construction work was taking place illegally and the contractor and the owner of the plot hence did not report it to the authorities and in a bid to hush up the matter they silently cremated the body in a village in Dahanu using kerosene oil and tyresAn officer said that the accused also paid Rs 4 lakh in bribes to the family of the deceased asking them to remain tightlipped The deceased has been identified as Ruksana Mahesh Lahange a tribal woman from Nimbapur Gibhalpada Bapugaon in the Dahanu taluka of Palghar district The incident took place on Friday October 4 afternoonThe incident took place on Friday October 4 afternoonAccording to the police suo motu action was taken as the father of the deceased was not willing to register a first information report FIR because he had been given money to remain silent Deputy Commissioner of Police DCP Pournima Chougule Shringi said that they began investigating the matter and a FIR was filed soon after the police learned about the incident The individuals named in the FIR are Dinesh Jain 58 his son Nitish Jain 33 Kannan Moni 40 Faraz Amir Khan 32 Pradeep Gupta and othersldquoWe have arrested four accusedmdashDinesh Nitish Kannan and Farzmdashand the search for the absconding accused is underwayrdquo DCP Shringi said The FIR is registered under sections 105 culpable homicide that is not considered murder 238 destroying evidence or providing false information and 35 criminal act committed by multiple people with a common intention of the BNSThe deceased woman has been identified as Ruksana Mahesh LahangeldquoAfter the woman died at the construction site these accused should have informed the police so that we could have completed the legal process She was not even taken to a hospital to be declared dead by a doctor Instead they cremated the body hours after the incidentrdquo the DCP saidldquoThe deceased was a tribal woman from a village in Dahanu taluka but she had been working in a plastic factory adjacent to the plot where construction work was going on The plot is spread across 50000 sq ft and this construction work was absolutely illegal We have written to VasaiVirar City Municipal Corporation officials to raze the structure completelyrdquo the DCP addedPolice took suo motu cognisance based on complaint filed by Shiv Sena leader Nilesh Tendulkar in white kurta sporting a tilakNaigaon police senior inspector Ramesh Bhame said that the investigating team has recovered a few pieces of bones from Lahangersquos village in Dahanu where she was cremated ldquoThese bones will be sent for forensic analysis for further course of actionrdquo said Bhamemidday has learned that the incident took place as no safety gear was provided to the workers at the construction site and that over a half dozen people including a fatherson duo from Malad East are responsible for this mishap The FIR and the arrest came following a complaint filed by the community with the help of Palghar district president of Shiv Sena Shinde faction Nilesh TendulkarAccusing the police of not taking the action quickly Tendulkar said that all the mafias are active in Vasai taluka because of their nexus with the police and administration ldquoThe illegal constructions are rampant in the Vasai Virar and Nalasopara areas but the municipal corporation officials have turned a blind eye to these illegal works Even local police also do not take any action despite receiving complaints against these mafiasrdquo Tendulkar said ldquoToday their audacity is so high that they cremated the body without letting police know to conduct a postmortem There is total anarchy in Vasai taluka The case must also be registered against the police officers as well as babus of the municipal corporationrdquo Tendulkar addedAt the time of going to the press a team of Naigaon police reached the accident site to conduct panchmana in this matterOct 4Day of the incident