Lagatar24 Desk
New Delhi, Feb 2: The chief judicial magistrate court in Morbi on Wednesday sent the managing director of Ajanta Manufacturing Private Limited (AMPL) of OREVA Group, Jaysukh Patel to police remand till February 8. The chief judicial magistrate granted the remand till 3 pm on February 8.
“Special public prosecutor SK Vora, while seeking Patel’s remand for 14 days, said the police wanted to question Patel as to how he managed to throw the bridge open on October 26 without a fitness certificate,” said a police official.
Vora told the court that, in June 2018, an agreement was signed with Patel to operate, maintain, manage and collect rent for the suspension bridge, and the said 9 years period expired on June 15, 2017. However, Patel continued to manage and operate the bridge till March 2022 when the new agreement was signed, which the investigating team would like to know how he managed to do that without any firm contract in place.
On January 3, three months after the Morbi bridge collapse, Patel surrendered before the court as he was named as a prime accused in the bridge collapse tragedy of October 30 that killed 135 people. Relatives and friends of the victims gathered outside the court and shouted slogans against Patel for the ill-fated tragedy.
Jaysukh Patel, whose firm was awarded the contract to maintain and repair the British-era foot bridge, was on January 27 named as an accused and escapee in a charge sheet filed by the Gujarat Police in connection with the incident.
Apart from Patel, police have arrested nine people and the government formed a special investigation team, but questions were raised on whether too many people were approved to climb on to the ‘jhulta pul’ (swinging bridge) and if the authorities ensured adequate safety certification and whether the renovation work that was completed four days before the tragedy was obligatory.
