Nearly a fortnight after the industrial chimney collapse which killed 41 people, the Chhattisgarh Police on Wednesday made its first arrest by detaining site in-charge of Gannon Dunkerly & Company Limited (GDCL), which was engaged in the construction of the structure at Bharat Aluminium Company Limited’s upcoming power plant in Korba district.

“We have arrested GDCL’s site in-charge Manoj Sharma in connection with the case registered under Sections 304 and 34 of the IPC—culpable homicide not amounting to murder and common intention. Investigations are on and legal action will follow against others responsible for the accident,” Korba SP Ratanlal Dangi said.

Dangi said they have also written to the Director of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in Roorkee, asking him to furnish all documents and other details on the basis of which its civil engineering expert Jagdish Prasad made a public statement that the chimney collapsed “due to lightning” and the other chimney was in “perfect shape”. “When police investigation was progressing, the IIT expert should not have made public such details. Hence, we would like to know the scientific as well as other basis through which the expert reached such a conclusion,” he added.