Harni boat tragedy: Kotia sent to 10-day police custody, another partner nabbed

“We have nabbed Gopal Shah from Raipur in Chhattisgarh. He will be formally arrested once our team brings him to Vadodara. He is in our custody in transit… His arrest will help the investigation in the right direction,” Zone 4 Deputy Commissioner of Police Panna Momaya, who is a supervising officer of the SIT, said.

Shah, an architect by profession, ran a firm named ‘Planning Solution’ and allegedly joined M/s Kotia Projects as a consultant partner in 2016, which helped the developer to qualify for the bid of developing the Motnath lake in Harni in the second attempt of the bidding process after being initially disqualified by VMC for “having no experience” in the field, sources in the SIT said.

On Wednesday, the SIT sought a 10-day remand of Kotia to complete a “deep” investigation into the tragedy, including ascertaining details of the contracts between VMC and the developer as well as the sub-contracts awarded by the developer.

District Government Pleader Anil Desai, who appeared for the SIT, said, “The police had sought a remand of 10 days on the ground that a probe was necessary to ascertain who all were involved in running this boating facility that showed gross negligence resulting in the loss of 14 lives, including 12 children…the details of the contract, permissions received to run such a facility as well as the involvement of other persons, who may not be part of the contract. The court has granted a remand until January 31.”

Meanwhile, Youth Congress leader Kuldeepsinh Waghela threw ink at Kotia as a mark of protest while he was being produced in court Wednesday. Police held Waghela from the spot, who said that he was protesting the “disregard for human life shown by Kotia” by running a facility that “clearly violated basic safety practices”.