The Delhi police has told the Delhi High Court that the owners of the building that collapsed at Satya Niketan in Southwest Delhi that killed seven people, had not engaged “qualified” persons for structural changes made to the building.

The police said that the probe also found that the operators of Hostel Daze, the paying guest facility which was being run from the building, too failed to take “appropriate precautions, despite construction/alteration/structural work being carried out in the building”.

The submissions were made in a status report filed by the police on September 21 in response to a PIL by Delhi University law student Aniket Kumar Gupta. He has sought an immediate safety audit of private paying guest and hostel accommodations in Satya Niketan, which caters mainly to students from DU’s South Campus. The Delhi HC had earlier sought status reports from the police on the probe.

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According to the police, owners Urmila Gupta, her husband Hari Ram Gupt and their son Mahesh Gupta — who are among the accused in the case — did not only fail to obtain requisite permissions for structural changes to the building, they had also additionally “engaged an unprofessional and unqualified Rajmistri/contractor, namely accused Sanoj, for carrying out the said work”.

“They had not engaged or sought the advice of any qualified structural engineer, architect or other competent expert for undertaking the structural modifications in the old building,” the police said.

“…it was further revealed that accused Sanoj had engaged two unqualified laborers for carrying out the repair/structural modification work. Accused Sanoj, being an unprofessional and unqualified rajmistri, failed to take adequate safety precautions during the repair/modification work carried out in the old building. It is further revealed that neither accused Sanoj nor the building owners obtained the opinion of any qualified architect/structural expert before undertaking the said work, ” police said.

Police said while the “precise role and responsibility” of each of the six accused is being ascertained, they have also found further lapses on the part of the building owners.

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“It has further been found during investigation that no land-use conversion permission had been obtained by the said persons. The premises were being commercially let out without obtaining the requisite permissions from the competent authorities,” police also said.