The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has refused sanction to prosecute civic officials arrested in the Dockyard building collapse case. It said charging them for culpable homicide (not amounting to murder and common intention) would be improper. After the Thane Municipal Corporation gave sanction to prosecute civic officials in the Mumbra building collapse case, Mumbai police see no reason why BMC should not give sanction to prosecute the accused in this case.
Babu Genu Market building at Dockyard Road collapsed on Sept 27 last year; 62 people died and more than 30 were injured.
BMC chief Sitaram Kunte had recently communicated to the police in writing that after having scrutinized the papers and statement recorded by the police in consultation with officers of the legal department, and after reading the chargesheet, it may be said that no common role, as one, can be attributed to all the municipal officers.
"In fact, the officers have played different roles individually in the matter and therefore, applying section 304 read with 34 of IPC would be improper," the letter stated.
Municipal officers cannot be made accountable under section 304 of the IPC which deals with culpable homicide not amounting to murder, as this would be too grave a charge against the accused, the letter says.
The report of the audit dated Nov 5, 2o12 by Pentacle Consultants mentions that the condition of the building is not bad but it requires major repairs. The report suggested shifting the tenants temporarily, as the repair work would take approximately 12 months. Hence, there was no reason to believe the building would collapse, the letter states.
As per a ward officer's statement, the building was categorised as C-2-B, and such buildings only need major repairs. "The building having been categorised thus; it most certainly rules out any "intention" or "knowledge" on the part of municipal officers. This certainly rules out applying section 304 (i) or (ii) in the case. If one were to take an excessively strong approach, at most it can be said that some of the arrested officers were negligent in performing their duties," the letter states.
The letter concluded stating that the corporation had come to the conclusion that the case does not attract section 304 (i) or (ii) as the municipal officers concerned had not committed heinous offence of culpable homicide not amounting to murder.
"Which part of 304 is applicable will be decided at the time or after the trial, and not right now. Eleven people including 10 civic officials were arrested in the case. Two of them have filed discharge applications saying there was no case against them and that there was no BMC sanction to prosecute them. We have told the court that there have been correspondences that the structure could collapse. In the Mumbra building collapse case sanction was given. We will give our reply to BMC as to why section 304 is applicable in this case," said special public prosecutor Shishir Hiray.
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