Morbi tragedy: bail pleas of seven rejected

Parmar’s confessional statement recorded before a magistrate forms part of the chargesheet submitted by the Morbi police on January 27.

The seven whose bail pleas were rejected on Saturday by the court of principal session judge PC Joshi, include two managers of Ajanta Manufacturing Private Limited (AMPL) — Deepak Parekh and Dineshbhai Davem, two ticket clerks Madevbhai Solanki and Mansukhbhai Topiya, and three security guards Alpeshbhai Gohil, Dilipbhai Gohil and Mukeshbhai Chauhan.

A total of 10 accused, including Jayasukh Patel, managing director of AMPL of the Oreva Group, are facing charges of culpable homicide not amounting to murder. Patel surrendered before a court here on February 1 before his arrest.

According to the SIT’s preliminary report submitted on December 11, 2022, the main cable on the upstream side was broken, and of the 49 wires comprising one cable, 22 were rusted and 27 had recently broken. It was also observed that the main block on Darbargadh side was heavily damaged and the main cable was displaced by more than 2 feet.

The SIT also found that if there were flexible wooden planks instead of the rigid panel of aluminium decks, “the number of casualties could have been fewer”. Testing of main cables and suspenders was not carried out during routine renovation work or after the renovation work.

This is the second attempt at bail by the seven accused persons, with the nine accused earlier filing for bail in November 2022, prior to filing of the chargesheet.

The British-era bridge on Machchhu river collapsed on October 30, 2022, days after it was reopened following repairs.