Three months after the Morbi bridge collapse in Gujarat, the main accused and owner of famous Oreva Company Jaysukh Patel surrendered in a local court on Tuesday. The police are expected to seek his remand later in the day.
Patel's surrender comes a day before a sessions court was to hear his anticipatory bail application.
In a chargesheet filed a couple of days ago, the police had named Patel as the main accused in the mishap which claimed 135 lives. The 1,262-page chargesheet had also named nine others who are already behind the bars. The police had named Patel an “absconder”.
The Oreva Group was given the contract of maintaining and operating the British era bridge over river Machhu. Within three days of its reopening after renovation, the bridge collapsed on October 30, 2022. The incident occurred days before the Gujarat Assembly elections were announced.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who was in Gujarat, visited Morbi and also met family members of the deceased.
The hanging bridge, probably the oldest of its kind in the country, was the centre of attraction for those visiting Morbi.
Chief officer of Morbi Municipality Sandipsinh Jhala, who signed the contract with the Oreva Group, has been suspended. His name, however, does not figure in the chargesheet. The contract was executed allegedly without the permission of the General Board of the Municipality.
Ever since the tragedy took place, Patel was neither seen in public nor had he given any statement. He had moved an anticipatory bail application on January 16.
A special investigation team that submitted the report had highlighted several lapses on the part of the Oreva group in the repair and operations of the bridge.
The rush on Sunday, which eventually turned out to be ill-fated, was so much that the booking clerks at the site had started issuing tickets from either sides of the bridge.
Even though the opposition Congress had raised the issue during the campaign in Morbi Assembly seat, BJP candidate Kantilal Amrutiya defeated Congress’ Jayantilal Patel by a margin of over 60,000 votes
Amrutiya had jumped into the river after the incident and helped in rescue operations. He was brought in place of Brijesh Merja, sitting MLA. Merja had won on a Congress ticket in 2017 and later defected to the BJP. Later he won the by-election from the BJP.
