(At The Quint, we've consistently reported on gaps and regulatory lapses plaguing India's urban infrastructure boom. If you like what we do, support us by becoming a member.)
On the day of Diwali, when Mumbai streets were lit up with fairy lights, one corner of Jogeshwari East lay cordoned off with yellow police tape. It was here, on Thakur Road, that 22-year-old Sanskruti Amin, barely a week into her first job, was crushed to death by a falling concrete block from an under-construction tower on 8 October.
"Her parents are still in shock. We've lost our 22-year-old bachhaa. She was a bright and lively child...yet to see the world," Sanskruti's aunty Mrudula said quietly as she narrated the family's ordeal to register a complaint.
The Shivkunj redevelopment project, run by Shraddha Lifestyle LLP, had no protective netting over the footpath, which is a basic safety requirement under Mumbai’s building code.
The BMC’s stop-work notice came only after public outrage and protests by local residents who say the site had long been a hazard. Two men, the site engineer and manager, have been arrested, while the builder remains on the run.
For the Amin family, the incident is a devastating personal loss. For the city, it has renewed uncomfortable questions about pedestrian safety, regulations concerning construction sites, and the price of infrastructural growth.
‘Took Us Hours Just to Get Them to File the Case’
The Amin family alleged that getting the system to act was a huge battle even as they grieved the loss of their daughter. Her father said it took multiple visits to the Meghwadi Police Station and repeated pleas before an FIR was finally registered. "They kept saying it was an accident, not a crime," he recalls. "But how is it an accident when someone allows loose slabs to hang over a public road?"
The police eventually booked the case under culpable homicide not amounting to murder as per sections under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS).
Yet, weeks after the tragedy, only the site engineer and manager have been arrested, while the builder remains at large.
The accused have been identified as Shambhu Kumar Palat Paswan, a site engineer, and site manager Gaurav Dineshbhai Sondagar.
Residents alleged that the police had arrested “small fish” instead of the developer and his partner. “The police have arrested small fish. They have not arrested the developer and his partner," said Harsh Amin, President of Dombivli based Billawar Association, a cultural organisation working for the Billava community to which the Amin family belongs.
"The police is saying they're unable to track the builder down. Tell us, is that even possible? If that's the case, how did he apply for an anticipatory bail?" Sanskruti's aunt Mrudula questioned.
The redevelopment project, Shivkunj, by Shraddha Lifestyle LLP, has since been sealed by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC). Investigators confirmed that basic safety measures such as netting or debris chutes were missing at the site.
As per the FIR, a copy of which was seen by The Quint, smaller chunks of concrete had fallen before, but complaints went unheard.
Construction Hazard and Civilian Deaths Across India
While Sanskruti’s death in Jogeshwari highlights a specific tragedy, the broader pattern across India is stark. The construction industry ranging from high-rises to infrastructural works and redevelopment sites accounts for a disproportionately high share of fatal accidents.
A 2016-based study by National Institute of Technology (NIT) Surat and Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi estimated that of around 48,000 occupational‐accident deaths reported annually in India, nearly a quarter (about 11,600) occurred in construction.
In the capital city of Delhi alone, an analysis of construction-site accident records based on FIRs filed from 2016-18 revealed 929 incidents in which 1,217 people (workers and children) were injured. Of these 356 (about 29 percent) were fatal.
Though many of the formally recorded cases involve workers, cases of civilian casualties in such accidents are also growing. These include incidents of pedestrians struck by falling debris, by-standers beneath collapsing slabs or walls, or people in adjoining public spaces as construction sites malfunction.
For instance, frequent wall-collapses during Mumbai’s monsoon season have claimed several lives and exposed how vulnerable pedestrians and passers-by are in redevelopment zones.
It is for this reason that Sanskruti's family is seeking accountability and not just compensation. "If a girl can’t even walk to work safely in this city, what’s the point of all this redevelopment?" her mother asks. "They can build as many towers as they want but they still couldn’t build one net strong enough to save her life."
A City That Refuses To Learn
Mumbai is a city of vertical ambitions, one that keeps stretching its skyline higher. But at the same time, it is people like Sanskruti Amin who are forced to pay the price of this ambition.
On paper, the BMC — Mumbai's civic body which one of the largest and richest in the country — has an exhaustive list of safety guidelines for developers.
Circular No. CE/1912/DP dated 29 June 2022 mandates protective safety nets, covered walkways, and debris for any site where construction material could endanger passers-by. Developers are also required to submit a Method Statement and Safety Plan to be approved by the Designated Officer before work begins. Failure to comply can attract a stop-work notice under the Mumbai Municipal Corporation Act, 1888, and prosecution under Sections 390 and 394 for causing public danger.
But the enforcement is lax.
A 2023 audit by the Municipal Building and Factory Department found that over 70 percent of redevelopment sites inspected in the western suburbs lacked even basic safety nets. Fines are rarely imposed, and stop-work notices, often issued after accidents, are quietly withdrawn once the builder files an “undertaking of compliance.”
The result is a pattern of preventable deaths.
In 2023, two pedestrians were killed in Dahisar when an iron rod fell from the 14th floor of a redevelopment project. In 2024, a 32-year-old courier rider died near Lower Parel when loose concrete from a commercial tower hit him.
Sanskruti’s case exposes how accountability stops at the lowest rung. The Meghwadi Police arrested the site engineer and the project manager but the developer remains absconding, shielded by procedural delay.
The Shraddha Lifestyle LLP project was duly registered with MahaRERA, yet RERA’s oversight ends at project registration. It doesn’t monitor day-to-day safety compliance.
Sanskruti’s father refuses to call her death an accident. “Accidents happen when something unpredictable occurs,” he said. “This was waiting to happen.”