The contractor wanted in connection with a crematorium roof collapse incident that claimed 24 lives here was arrested from a village near the border of Meerut and Muzaffarnagar districts of Uttar Pradesh, police said on Tuesday.

Ghaziabad Police had on Monday arrested Muradnagar Nagar Palika Executive Officer Niharika Singh, Junior Engineer Chandra Pal and Supervisor Ashish as they were involved in the tendering process for building the structure. They were sent to judicial custody for 14 days.

Twenty-four people, most of them attending a funeral, were killed and 17 others injured when the roof of a shelter at the cremation ground in Muradnagar here collapsed on Sunday.

Contractor Ajay Tyagi, who went into hiding after news of the collapse spread, was nabbed near the Ganga canal bridge of Sathedi village by a joint team of Muradnagar and Niwari police, the officials said.

Earlier, police were raiding his possible hideouts, and Senior Superintendent of Police Kalanidhi Naithani had announced a reward of Rs 25,000 for information leading to his arrest, Superintendent of Police (Rural) Iraj Raja told PTI.

Tyagi was booked under various sections of the law, and he will be produced before a court on Tuesday, the police said.

A tender of Rs 55 lakh, and not Rs 55 crore as reported earlier, was awarded to Tyagi for renovation and construction of shelter three months ago, and the shelter was opened to the public 15 days back.

The SP said a probe was underway to examine how much substandard material was used in the construction. After the investigation, corruption charges would be added, he added.?