Satya Niketan PG Owner Hariram Gupta Detained After Manhunt Over Building Collapse

The owner of the collapsed PG accommodation in Delhi’s Satya Niketan, Hariram Gupta, was detained from Bhiwadi near Gurugram after an extensive police manhunt, more than 24 hours after the five-storey building collapsed, killing seven people and injuring five others.

Earlier, the Delhi Police had issued a lookout circular (LOC) against Gupta and obtained his passport details to trace him. Several teams were deployed to locate him and conducted raids at suspected hideouts.

Police also visited Sector 23, where Gupta’s hardware shop, Hariram Paints and Hardware, has remained locked for the past two days. Locals said Gupta had been running the shop for around 15 years and was a prominent hardware trader in the area. Neighbours also claimed that the Gupta family owns several houses in Sector 23 and Palam Vihar.

The decades-old building, which housed the boys’ PG accommodation Hostel Daze, collapsed on Sunday while repair work was underway. The incident occurred in the densely populated Satya Niketan area near Delhi University’s South Campus, surrounded by several colleges and numerous PG accommodations.

Search and rescue operations remain underway, with teams from the Delhi Police, Delhi Fire Service, National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), Delhi Disaster Management Authority and other agencies combing through the rubble for those still unaccounted for.

Locals have alleged that water had accumulated in the basement following days of heavy rain, potentially weakening the foundation. However, the exact cause of the collapse is yet to be established and remains under investigation.

The incident has also raised questions over construction and building safety in the locality, where several residential properties have reportedly been converted into PG accommodations.

The Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) has ordered the immediate sealing of illegal constructions exceeding four floors and warned of strict action, including dismissal of officials found responsible.

The collapsed structure was a ground-plus-five-storey building constructed on a plot measuring around 55 square yards in a resettlement colony, where permission was originally granted only for a ground-plus-one structure.