Bridge collapse case: Suspended Morbi chief officer named witness

RAJKOT: Sandeepsinh Jhala, the suspended chief officer of Morbi municipality who had signed the contract with Oreva Group for maintenance and operation of the suspension bridge, was named as one of the witnesses by the police in the supplementary chargesheet filed in the collapse of this Victorian era structure.
As many as 135 people were killed in the bridge collapse on October 30 last year.
On March 8 last year, Jhala signed the 15-year memorandum of understanding with Oreva Group for the operation, maintenance, and repair of the bridge, without the approval of the civic body's general board.
However, Jhala's role in signing the contract is not being probed by the police with sources telling TOI that it's more of an administrative lapse.
Hours after the accident, Jhala was the first government official to speak to the media wherein he stated that the Oreva Group had not obtained a fitness certificate before reopening the bridge. He had also made a bizarre claim that the civic body was not aware of the bridge being reopened.
During questioning last year, Jhala did a volte-face and admitted that the municipality was aware that a tragedy was in the making if the bridge got overcrowded.
Along with Jhala, police have also named current and former members of the municipality as witnesses. These include its president Kusum Parmar, vice-president Jayraj Jadeja, standing committee member Suresh Desai, former president Ketan Vilpara and civil engineer Keval Kalola.
In all, the supplementary chargesheet filed on Thursday has the names of 369 witnesses that also include the district collector, additional collector and doctors who issued death certificates. The chargesheet runs into more than 1,000 pages.
Oreva Group managing director Jaysukh Patel is among the 10 people arrested in this case and the chargesheet attributed the tragedy to the serious negligence and carelessness of his company.
Highlighting the 'utter negligence' of Patel, the chargesheet states that Patel violated the condition of the contract which stated the bridge should be renovated within eight to 12 months in a way that increases its strength but he opened the bridge for the public in a short period of six months. The repairing work was subcontracted to a firm that had no knowledge of the suspension bridge cables and the structure, despite knowing that the shoddy job could result in a fatal accident.
Police have stated that Patel also collected tickets for Rs 5, Rs 12, and Rs 17 instead of Rs 5, Rs 10, and Rs 15 as mentioned in the contract and allowed more than 400 people on the bridge for financial gains.
Patel did not care to obtain any kind of strength stability certificate from a technical expert before throwing the bridge open. The Oreva group did not deploy swimmers, boats, emergency medical teams, or life jackets or made any disaster management plan before opening the bridge
Patel and nine others have been booked under several sections of the IPC with the most serious one being culpable homicide not amounting to murder.
Earlier, statements of some of the accused have been recorded under section 164 of CrPC so that they don't turn hostile during the trial. These accused are said to have given some crucial evidence to the police.