On October 6, Central Railway had announced that a four-member committee had been set up to investigate the mishap. (File)

After promising to conduct a speedy inquiry “within 14 days” into the incident of hoarding collapse at Amar Shaikh Chowk near Juna Bazaar, which had killed four persons and injured many others, Central Railway is yet to come out with the probe report as, it claims, the investigation in the incident had hit a roadblock as two important witnesses were behind bars.

As per senior officials of Central Railway, the high-level inquiry committee comprising four senior officials was waiting for two of its arrested staffers — a blacksmith and a junior engineer working with Pune Division — to come out of jail, so that their statements could be recorded and the inquiry completed.

“The committee can only submit the report after the two staffers, who are in judicial custody now, come out and it can record their statements,” said Sunil Udasi, chief public relations officer for Central Railway. Udasi said he had no idea when the arrested staffers would come out of jail since it was a matter to be decided by the court.

On the afternoon of October 5, a 40-feet tall and 40-feet wide metal structure of the hoarding, installed on Railway land, had collapsed on the road, crushing vehicles and motorists who were waiting for the red light to turn green. Four persons had died in the accident while 11 others had sustained serious injuries.

On October 6, Central Railway had announced that a four-member committee had been set up to investigate the mishap. It also said that the committee had been asked to complete the inquiry and submit the report within 14 days.

Advocate Gaurav Jachak, who is representing the two arrested railway staffers, said it was not clear when the duo would come out on bail as the sessions court has recently rejected their bail application. “Our bail request was rejected by the sessions court in Pune and we are now planning to move the Bombay High Court.

It may take a few days to submit the petition and the courts are also expected to go on vacation, so there is uncertainty about when the bail plea may be heard in the High Court,” said Jachak.

The arrested duo — junior engineer Sanjay Vishnudev Singh (42) and blacksmith Pandurang Nivrutti Vanare (57) — have been booked under sections 304 (2) (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) and 34 (common intentions).

Bundgarden Police had arrested them on October 6 and told the court that their remand was needed to know the whereabouts of the other accused who are wanted in the case and to recover equipment that were being used for dismantling the hoarding.

The duo have maintained, through their lawyers, that they were being made “scapegoats” and the police had not questioned senior officials with the commercial department of the Pune Division, who had issued the contracts to advertisers as well as the private contractors for dismantling the metal structures.

They maintained that they were not involved in any way in the process of dismantling the hoardings and they were not present at the site when the operation was going on.