The Maharashtra Police have arrested the project head of a company running a waste processing unit that collapsed on July 8, killing nine workers in the Pune district, The Indian Express reported on Tuesday.

A first information report was registered against Ashok Gupta, the project head, along with Vijay Sapkal, the safety officer at the plant, under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita sections pertaining to culpable homicide not amounting to murder and rash or negligent act that endangers human life, PTI reported.

The three-storey administrative building of a waste-to-energy plant in the Moshi area of the Pimpri-Chinchwad city had collapsed when an adjacent mound of garbage fell on it.

Twenty-three employees of Antony Lara Renewable Energy Limited, the company that had been given the contract to run the unit by the Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation, were inside the building at the time.

Sapkal, the safety officer, was also injured in the incident and is being treated at a hospital, an unidentified police officer was quoted as saying by The Indian Express.

Gupta sustained minor injuries and has been arrested, the officer added.

The complaint in the case was filed by officials of the Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation, reported PTI.

It stated that no safety measures were taken despite knowing that the heavy rains could pose a danger to the sanitary landfill at the site.

On Monday, the civic corporation stated that an inquiry into the collapse showed that the company had only been issued an occupancy certificate for the ground floor of the building, according to the news agency.

The Maharashtra government has also constituted a technical inquiry committee to investigate the incident, Vijay Suryavanshi, the commissioner of the civic corporation, was quoted as saying.

Earlier, Mahendra Ananthula, the president of the Antony Waste Group, said that the collapse was an “act of God” which could not have been predicted.

“The kind of rainfall witnessed over the last four to five days could not have been predicted,” Ananthula was quoted as saying on Sunday. “Similar incidents have occurred in different parts of the country over the past week.”

Ananthula announced a compensation package of Rs 25 lakh for the families of each of those who died, and added that the company would bear the medical expenses of those injured.

Edited by Sara Varghese.