A local court in Vadodara Thursday extended the police remand of six accused in the Harni boat capsize case by six days until January 31. The six include three partners Bhimsinh Yadav, Vedprakash Yadav and Rashmikant Prajapati, and employees — manager Shantilal Solanki, and boatmen Nayan Gohil and Ankit Vasava. They were arrested on November 19. The Special Investigation Team (SIT) had sought an extension of their remand by nine days. On Wednesday, the SIT was also granted the remand of Binit Kotia, owner of M/s Kotia Projects, until January 31. "The SIT produced the six arrested accused in court at the end of their five days remand. The police have told the court that 12 more accused are yet to be arrested in the case. There is grave negligence in the case and the investigation needs getting into the depths of the operation of the Lake Zone, for which the remand of the accused is essential," said District Government Pleader Anil Desai. On Thursday, the Vadodara SIT also formally arrested Gopal Shah and Paresh Shah. While Gopal was arrested after he was brought to Vadodara from Chhattisgarh, from where he was apprehended Wednesday, Paresh was nabbed by a team of the Special Operations Group (SOG) of Vadodara city police from Halol in Panchmahal district, the SIT said. Both were arrested around 3.30pm Thursday and will be produced in court on Friday, the SIT said. "The SOG, Prevention of Crime Branch (PCB) as well as the Detection of Crime Branch (DCB) are continuously looking for the accused. We have nabbed Gopal Shah and Paresh Shah based on technical surveillance. We nabbed Shah from Raipur in Chhattisgarh and Paresh Shah was nabbed from Halol in Panchmahal district. Their locations were constantly changing," said Joint Commissioner of Police Manoj Ninama who is heading the SIT. According to the police, Paresh first escaped to Anand, then came to Panchmahal and went back to Anand before he was in Panchmahal again. He was nabbed while he was in his car in between Halol and Kalol in Panchmahal. Meanwhile, the SIT has sent VMC a second reminder to submit relevant documents related to the project to help in the investigation, Ninama said. "We have asked the VMC to submit documents related to the contract (with M/s Kotia Projects), including certifications, permissions and other documents (regarding inspections) of the project. We have only received the contract document and we have sent a written reminder for the second time to the VMC to submit the documents. When we investigate the contents of the documents and the project in detail, we will be able to decide the liability of the civic body." The police have now arrested nine of the 20 persons booked for culpable homicide and negligence in the Harni boat tragedy that killed 12 students and two teachers on January 18. One of the accused is now deceased. Ninama added that teams are now on the lookout for the 10 other accused, who are at large, including the wife, son and daughter of Paresh Shah. "Our teams are out in the field since the day of the tragedy and are tracking down the accused based on the technical surveillance.. We will be investigating who all sheltered the accused while they were on the run. Paresh Shah was at the centre of the operations of the Lake Zone and it has been verified by the Manager Shantilal Solanki, who was arrested on January 19," he said. "We will investigate whose account the income of Lake Zone was being transferred to, whether it was to Paresh Shah's account or to the accounts of his family members. We have sought details of the properties owned by the family in the city as well as their passport details to mitigate their chances of escaping abroad. Look out circulars have been issued for the other partners," Ninama added. According to SIT, while Gopal is a partner of M/s Kotia Projects that was awarded the contract of the redevelopment of Motnath Harni Lake, Paresh, who was booked in the case on January 20 after police investigations revealed that he was in-charge of handling day-to-day operations at the Lake Zone, was not a partner in the firm. Since the news of Paresh landing in police custody became public Thursday, videos of him at the spot soon after the boat accident on January 18 went viral in Vadodara. In the videos, Paresh is seen on the spot while VMC's fire department carried out the initial rescue operation. A video of Paresh evading questions from mediapersons during the rescue operations on January 18 also became viral. However, it was on January 20 that the Vadodara SIT began a search for him after booking him.
