A sessions court on Tuesday granted temporary bail on the grounds of the pandemic to the owner Gufran Qureishi of a Nagpada building, a part of which collapsed in August last year leaving a 70-year-old woman and her 12-year-old granddaughter dead.
Qureishi had sought temporary bail on the basis of the High Power Committee’s guidelines on decongestion of prisons. His counsel Niranjan Mundargi had also cited certain medical ailments he suffers from, which could make him susceptible to the virus in prison.
Granting him temporary bail, the sessions court directed him to be present at the police station once every 30 days.
Qureishi had been booked by the Nagpada police under culpable homicide not amounting to murder 304(II) and causing death by negligence 304(A) of the IPC.
Earlier, his two bail applications on merits of the case had been rejected by the sessions court. Rejecting his bail plea in November last year, the court had said that two lives were lost because adequate precautions were not taken while carrying out repairs of the building. It had also observed that even if the tenants were occupying a dilapidated structure, it was necessary for the owner to take adequate precautions to safeguard their lives.
On 27 August last year, a portion of a toilet block of Mishra building in Nagpada area had collapsed onto the two victims, killing them. The police complaint filed by their family had named the realty firm Sirsiwala Realty, that owns the building, as the accused.
