CSMT FOB collapse: Engg shirked responsibility

Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation's executive engineer Anil Patil (53), who was arrested on Tuesday evening in the CSMT bridge collapse case was on Wednesday remanded to police custody till April 5 by the Esplanade court. According to police, like BMC Assistant Engineer Sandeep Kakulte who was arrested on Monday, Patil did not visit the FOB during its audit and while a test was conducted by the contractor.

While seeking Patil's custody, public prosecutor Rajendra Suryawanshi told the court that the latter who is a senior civic official, neither performed his duties diligently nor did he inform or supervise his juniors. "We strongly suspect monetary benefit to be the reason behind negligence. We need to investigate into it. There are no notes of audit and repair, and if they exist then why they had not been submitted to the corporation? Also, various notes and documents related to the bridge have to be recovered."

Patil was responsible for repairs and audit of 39 bridges in south Mumbai. Six people were killed and 35 were injured in the overbridge collapse incident on March 14.