Mumbai: Azad Maidan police have arrested a retired Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) chief engineer of bridges Shitalaprasad Kori (58) on Monday. He is the fourth person arrested in the Himalaya bridge collapse tragedy. Kori has been accused of negligence. He was the chief engineer of bridges when the audit and repairs of the bridge were carried out. Kori was produced before Esplanade metropolitan magistrate court which sent him to police custody till Friday.
Kori was the chief engineer of bridges between 2014 to 2018 and he retired in June 2018. While asking for his custody prosecutors argued, “He was the chief engineer in bridges, yet he never visited the site, neither did he bother to check whether his subordinates–engineer and assistant engineer, inspected the site or not. Public prosecutor further claimed,”If Kori had performed his duties, the Himalaya bridge tragedy could have been prevented.”
While opposing the police claims, Kori’s advocate Ashwin Thool argued, Kori retired 10 months before the tragedy occurred and he was not responsible. “Being a government employee, Kori has submitted everything in his possession so nothing is left to recover from him. After the tragedy Kori is helping in the investigations hence we oppose police custody,” Thool urged. The Himalayan bridge collapsed on March 14, in which seven died and more than 30 people were injured. Police have so far arrested a private auditor Neeraj Kumar Desai, BMC executive engineer Anil Patil and assistant BMC engineer, S Kakulte.
