A manager of the Oreva Group, a private firm tasked with the maintenance and operations of the ill-fated Morbi suspension bridge, termed the Sunday's disaster in which 135 people lost their lives, as an 'act of God'. The manager made this claim in a local court which was hearing the case on Wednesday, reports said.
"One of the two managers of Oreva company (who have been arrested) told the court that it is an 'act of God'," Additional Public Prosecutor, Advocate H.S. Panchal was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.
Chief Judicial Magistrate M.J. Khan remanded four of the arrested accused—two managers of Oreva Group and two sub-contractors who had repaired the bridge —in police custody till Saturday. Five other arrested men, including security guards and ticket booking clerks, were remanded in judicial custody as police did not seek their custody.
During the hearing, the prosecution told the court that contractors who carried out repairs of the ill-fated suspension bridge at Morbi in Gujarat were not qualified to carry out such jobs. While the flooring of the bridge was replaced, its cable was not replaced and it could not take the weight of the changed flooring, said the prosecution, citing a forensic report.
"Though the FSL report was presented in a sealed cover, it was mentioned during the remand plea that cables of the bridge were not replaced during the renovation and only flooring was changed..... weight of the bridge increased due to the four-layered aluminium sheets for the flooring and the cable snapped due to that weight," Panchal told reporters.
Police had on Monday booked nine persons under Indian Penal Code section 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder). The four who were remanded in police custody were Oreva managers Dipak Parekh and Dinesh Dave, and repairing contractors Prakash Parmar and Devang Parmar, hired by the Oreva Group.
Hundreds of people fell into the Machchhu river after the over 140-year-old suspension bridge collapsed on Sunday evening, in the first major disaster in the Sourashtra town after the dam failure in 1979.
Meanwhile, the Morbi Bar Association Rajkot Bar Association on Wednesday said its members won't represent the accused in the case. The association's decision was opposed by lawyer Hamza Lakdawala, who said it was acting like a khap panchayat.
"Bar associations exists to uphold the rule of law and to ensure that advocates can discharge their professional duties without fear of victimisation. They stand for the law and for lawyers. Far from that, the Morbi Bar Association is acting like a lawless mob or a khap panchayat," she tweeted.
With PTI inputs