- By JE News Desk
- Wed, 02 Nov 2022 07:11 AM (IST)
- Source:JND
THE DEADLY bridge collapse in Gujarat's Morbi has been blamed on patchy renovation work by contractors unfit for the job. The prosecution on Tuesday told a Morbi court that while the flooring of the bridge was replaced, its cable was not replaced. It further said that the contractors, vested with the repair work, were not qualified to carry out such tasks. A total of 135 people were reported dead in the incident.
Citing forensic reports, prosecutor H S Panchal said forensic experts believed that the main cable of the bridge snapped because it could not take the weight of the new flooring.
"Though the FSL report was presented in a sealed cover, it was mentioned during the remand plea that cables of the bridge were not replaced during the renovation and only flooring was changed..... weight of the bridge increased due to the four-layered aluminium sheets for the flooring and the cable snapped due to that weight," news agency PTI quoted Panchal as saying.
The court was also told that the two repairing contractors, Prakash Parmar and Devang Parmar, were "not qualified" for the work. The prosecutor pointed out that despited the lack of qualification, the two were given repair work of the bridge in 2007 and then in 2022.
Seeking custody of the accused, he said it was needed to "find out what was the reason for choosing them and at whose instance they were chosen".
On Monday, police had booked nine persons under Indian Penal Code section 304, which deals with culpable homicide not amounting to murder. Of these four people were remanded in police custody till Saturday.
The four sent to custody by the magistrate's court include OREVA managers Dipak Parekh and Dinesh Dave, and the two repairing contractors.
Further, Chief Judicial Magistrate M J Khan remanded five other arrested men, including security guards and ticket booking clerks, in judicial custody as police did not seek their custody, said prosecutor H S Panchal.