Property developers arrested by Kolkata Police over ‘tilted’ buildings

The Kolkata Police made multiple arrests, including of a promoter and owner of a construction company, in connection to the case of multiple apartment buildings in the city recently being found tilting dangerously.

Promoter Rajat Lee was arrested from Kolkata’s Tiljala and produced in court by Kolkata Police on Tuesday (February 4, 2025). He was remanded to police custody till February 8, 2025, according to police sources.

Mr. Lee was allegedly involved in the development of one of the two multi-storeys on Christopher Road in Kolkata’s Tangra area, which were found precariously tilting against each other.

Meanwhile, on Sunday (February 2, 2025) officers of a Special Investigation Team from Kolkata’s Netaji Nagar police station arrested Abhishek Nagra, the head of a Haryana-based firm that was allegedly involved in allegedly flouting civic body norms and installing hydraulic assistance to ‘fix’ a dangerously tilting apartment building in Kolkata’s Baghajatin area.

Police said Mr. Nagra was brought to Kolkata on Monday (February 3, 2025) on transit remand.

Earlier last month, one Subhas Roy, who was involved in developing the tilted building at Baghajatin, was arrested from a hotel at Bakkhali in West Bengal’s South 24 Parganas.

Over the span of the last one month, panic broke out in multiple residential areas in the city when residential buildings were found tilting after being allegedly constructed without proper sanctions from the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC). 

In many cases, such ‘illegally constructed’ buildings that came under the KMC’s radar including in Baghajatin and Tangra have also been given notices for immediate evacuation and demolition after inspection by civic body engineers. This has also led to a crisis among the families occupying flats in them.