MUMBAI: Almost a month after a 35-year-old homemaker, Sheetal Bhanushali, allegedly fell into an open manhole in Asalpha village and her body was fished out from the Arabian sea at Haji Ali, nearly 22km away, the BMC has lodged a complaint with Ghatkopar police against unknown persons for causing death due to negligence.
The BMC action assumes significance even as its own probe report into her death remains ‘inconclusive’. Meanwhile, Sheetal’s family has decided to file a writ petition in Bombay high court to seek justice.
“BMC officials have given us in writing that it was a case of death due to negligence. So, we registered an FIR under IPC Section 304-A against unknown persons,” said Prashant Kadam, deputy commissioner of police, zone VII.
Sanjay Bhanushali, a relative of the deceased, said: “The BMC has registered an FIR, but we are not satisfied. We plan to file a writ petition in the high court after Diwali vacation. We want justice for Sheetal. We want the BMC to shoulder the responsibility of her death. We don’t want such incidents to be repeated in future.”
On October 4, Sheetal had stepped out to buy flour amid heavy rain. More than 24 hours later, her body was found near the Haji Ali seafront at Worli. Since her bag was found next to a manhole, police and her family suspected that she may have fallen into it. But, civic officials had insisted that the underground drainage at Asalpha is too narrow to allow a body to be carried away.
Later, Sheetal’s husband Jitesh and a few relatives, along with BJP leader Kirit Somaiya, met governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari and sought speedy investigation.
BMC officials prima facie refused to believe that Sheetal had fallen into the manhole. Manish Vallunj, assistant municipal commissioner of L ward, had then said that the manhole in which she is believed to have fallen into was not wide enough to fit an adult. He had also said that the chances of a body travelling through narrow drains and nullahs and the Mithi stretch, which carries rainwater from surrounding areas into the sea at Mahim bay, and floating to Haji Ali were remote.
The BMC had set up an inquiry committee under deputy municipal commissioner Sanjay Darade and tasked it to submit the report within 15 days. The report had said that it “cannot draw any conclusions as to how she drowned and how her body reached the Arabian Sea near Haji Ali”.