Gujarat HC rejects bail application of accused in Morbi bridge collapse case

Justice Sameer Dave while hearing the bail application said that granting bail to the accused may jeopardize the investigation which is at a critical phase.

Ahmedabad: The Gujarat High Court on Wednesday rejected the bail application of the seven accused in the October 30 Morbi bridge collapse in Gujarat in which 135 people were killed and 56 others injured. A single bench of Justice Sameer Dave said that granting bail to the accused at a time when the state government's probe of the case is at a critical stage, can compromise the investigation.

Besides, the possibility of the accused tampering with the evidence and witnesses of the case cannot be ruled, Justice Dave said while rejecting the bail plea of the seven accused including Dinesh Dave and Deepak Parekh the two managers of Oreva Group, which ran the operations of the suspension bridge that collapsed in Morbi.

The other accused include ticket booking clerk and security guards Mansukh Topia, Mahadev Solanki, Alpesh Gohil, Dilip Gohil and Mukesh Chauhan who had applied for bail in the Gujarat High Court in the Morbi suspension bridge case. Earlier, the accused had applied for bail in the sessions court of Morbi but the court too rejected their bail application.

A First Information Report (FIR) has been filed by the Gujarat Police in the bridge collapse incident in Gujarat's Morbi district against private agencies for attempt to commit culpable homicide and culpable homicide not amounting to murder.

The police also informed that the management person/ agency did not take due care and quality check of the bridge and kept it open for the people on October 26, displaying severe carelessness.

The bridge was closed for about 8 months for maintenance and the repair work was being completed by a private agency."The cable bridge on the river was kept open without proper repair and maintenance and carelessness of the management and due to technical issues, the bridge collapsed at around 18:30 hours. Hence FIR has been registered under Sections 304, 308, and 114 of the Indian penal code against the Maintenance and Management person/agency," police said.