Gujarat witnessed one of its biggest tragedies on October 30 and two months later the victims have some hope of getting justice. The Managing Director of the Ajanta-Oreva Group, Jaysukh Patel, has been named as an accused in a soon-to-be-filed chargesheet by Gujarat police for his role in the collapse of the Morbi suspension bridge.
The Victorian-era bridge that collapsed on October 30 and resulted in 135 people drowning in the Machchhu river has been renovated, operated, and maintained by Patel’s company, which has received a lookout notice from the police.
Patel, according to senior police authorities, has been avoiding arrest for the past 1.5 months and has disregarded all interrogation requests. Vibes of India wrote a detailed report on this: https://www.vibesofindia.com/in-gujarats-poll-dance-9-held-for-morbi-tragedy-go-unheard/
A senior police officer said, “In the last two months, we raided his residence, factory and several other premises and other potential hideouts. We had summoned him several times for questioning. Finally, we secured his arrest warrant under CrPC section 70 and a lookout circular some 10 days back.”
The poor quality of the bridge’s repairs was revealed by a three-member special investigation team (SIT) established to look into the accident.
During the Diwali vacations, Oreva Group opened the bridge to traffic without notifying the Morbi municipality or performing the required fitness test on the building. DevPrakash Solutions, to whom the organisation had subcontracted the repair and renovation work, lacked the skills necessary to repair the bridge.
Nine persons have been detained by the police thus far, including Deepak Parekh and Dinesh Dave, managers of Oreva who were in charge of running the bridge on a daily basis. The other people detained are security guards, ticket sellers, and Devang and Prakash Parmar of DevPrakash Solutions.
A Morbi court adjourned a hearing on Patel’s anticipatory bail application to February 1 in order to give the prosecution time to file a response. A petition to deny Patel’s bail has also been made by the families of about ten victims.
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