Morbi bridge collapse case: Eight accused withdraw bail pleas from HC

Oreva Group managers Dinesh Dave and Dipak Parekh; two ticket clerks Madevbhai Solanki and Mansukhbhai Topiya; three security guards Alpeshbhai Gohil, Dilipbhai Gohil and Mukeshbhai Chauhan; Prakash Parmar and his son Devang Parmar, proprietors of the Surendranagar-based Dev Prakash Fabrication firm, which was roped in by Oreva for the bridge repair, are the accused in the case.

On November 23, a Morbi sessions court had rejected the bail pleas of all the nine accused.

The bail pleas were taken up for hearing at the high court by Justice Samir Dave Monday.

The managers of Oreva submitted they are salaried persons, “not drawing more than
Rs 30,000-40,000 per month, and to suggest that they are responsible for the entire collapse… it was not within our scope of work at all”.

The advocate representing the three security guards’ also submitted before the court that “they are actually not security guards,” while placing their salary extracts on the court’s record.

It was submitted that they are labourers for the loading and unloading of labour works.

It was also submitted that one of the accused — Dilipbhai Gohil —was at the site of collapse when the incident occurred, and had himself fallen off the bridge, sustaining injuries.

The court, orally, conveyed that it was inclined to reject the bail pleas before the filing of the chargesheet, following which the advocates of the accused submitted they would withdraw their pleas.

The same was permitted with liberty reserved to the accused to approach for bail upon the filing of the chargesheet.

The Morbi bridge collapse on October 30 killed 135 people.