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AHMEDABAD: Seven labourers were killed and one was injured after a scaffold crashed to the ground at a construction site on Wednesday morning. The accident, which exposes lack of safety measures, took place at the site near Gujarat University. Five of the labourers plunged down 13 floors, while three others fell from the fifth floor, according to police.

Police said that five labourers were plastering the wall of the elevator shaft on the 13th floor when the wooden plank they were standing on broke, plunging them straight to the basement. "On hearing the thud, three workers on the fifth floor ran to see what happened and they too fell into the shaft," said ACP L B Jhala of B Division of city police.

While there remain many unanswered questions, further clarity about the accident may only emerge after the injured labourer, Pankaj Kharadi, provides a detailed account, said sources. Kharadi is undergoing treatment at Sola Civil Hospital and his condition is said to be critical.
Gujarat University police late on Wednesday evening registered a case under the IPC section 304 (culpable homicide) and 114 (abetment) against contractor Saurabh Shah and two sub-contractors Dinesh Prajapati and Naimish Patel.

Inspector VJ Jadeja of Gujarat University police said that the contractor and his two sub-contractors endangered construction labourers' lives by not providing them with any safety tools.

The deceased labourers are Jagdish Nayak, 21, a resident of Samarkuva village of Panchmahal; Sanjay Babu Nayak, 20, and Ashwin Nayak, 20, both residents of Virol village in Devgadh Baria of Dahod; Sanjay Manga Nayak, 21, Shailesh Nayak, 19, and Mukesh Nayak, 26, residents of Vavkulli village in Panchmahal, and Rajmal Kharadi, 25, a native of Ganoda in Banswara in Rajasthan.