Former Pune corporator killed at Games headquarters

A former corporator of Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) was killed in a freak incident at the Organising Committee (OC) Commonwealth Games headquarters on Jai Singh Road here on Thursday.

Fifty-six-year-old Sambhaji Naik had gone to the headquarters to meet the personal secretary to the Indian Olympic Association president Suresh Kalmadi around 9-30 p.m. when the frame of a stage collapsed and fell on him causing serious head injuries.

“When Sambhaji reached the headquarters preparations were being made for a function in connection with the launch of the Commonwealth Games tickets on Friday. The labourers had erected a several feet high frame to build a stage. While Sambhaji was talking to someone on the phone at the reception, the frame suddenly collapsed and hit him on the head. He sustained serious injuries and was taken to Lohia Hospital where he died around midnight,” said a senior police officer. The body was handed over to the relatives after a post-mortem. The police have registered a case of negligence at the Connaught Place police station in this connection.Mr. Naik had come to the Capital on Thursday to meet the Indian Olympic Association president. He was the ex-chairman of PMC Education Board from 1985 to 1992.Meanwhile, the Organising Committee Commonwealth Games condoled his death and ordered an inquiry against the event management agency, the India Tourism Development Corporation.