3 min readVadodaraJan 22, 2024 08:32 AM IST
First published on: Jan 22, 2024 at 01:36 AM IST
The Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the Vadodara city police, which is investigating the boat tragedy that left 12 schoolchildren and two teachers dead, on Sunday conducted an extensive probe at the premises of the Lake Zone at Motnath Lake in Harni with the forensic team. The SIT prepared a layout of the entertainment facility as well as the jetty and the boats deployed at the lake by the contractor.
Teams of the SIT have been sent to different parts of the country to nab 13 of the 19 accused who are yet to be arrested. Meanwhile, the Vadodara District Education Officer (DEO) has issued a notice to the management of New Sunrise School which had sent a total of 82 students and 11 teachers to the Lake Zone for the picnic on Thursday.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime) Yuvrajsinh Jadeja, who is the supervising officer of the SIT, told The Indian Express that the SIT had begun making “exact inspections” along with experts in order to continue with the technical investigation. “On Sunday, we prepared an entire layout of the entertainment and boating facility that will help us as we proceed with the investigation. With experts from Surat, we started taking measurements of the boats and other facilities in the boating area on Saturday… The boat (that capsized) was measured and details have been noted down that will help the investigation,” he said.
He added that the police teams have fanned out in search of 11 partners of M/s Kotia Projects and two others booked on Saturday — Paresh Shah, who managed the day-to-day activities at the Lake Zone, and Nilesh Jain, who ran the boat service on a sub-contract by Kotia Projects.
“We have begun investigating the nature of the contract between Kotia and Dolphin Entertainment run by Nilesh Jain. The boat operator had no direct contract with the VMC, and so we are checking the legalities and when Kotia Projects hired Jain’s company as well as its corporate standing… We have also sought details from the VMC about the necessary inspections carried out at the Lake Zone from time to time. Once we have these documents in place, it will help the investigation in the right direction,” Jadeja said.
The SIT, on Saturday, had been granted five days of police remand of the six arrested accused, including three employees of the Lake Zone. Jadeja added that the police will also reconstruct the sequence of events once the technical details have been established. On Sunday, the SIT also began recording statements of witnesses of the incident as well as children, who were rescued in the accident. Commissioner of Police Anupam Singh Gahlaut told this newspaper, “We are counselling the children who were rescued and survived as they are traumatised. We have begun recording their statements in presence of a child welfare officer so that we can piece the sequence of events together and verify it through the statements of the children.”
Meanwhile, the DEO has sought a reply from the school within seven days on why prior permission of the Education Department was not sought in the matter, referring to a November 2023 circular reminding the schools to take requisite permissions for field trips and picnics.
Teams of the SIT have been sent to different parts of the country to nab 13 of the 19 accused who are yet to be arrested. (Express File Photo) 
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