BMC engineer arrested in connection with CSMT bridge collapse
The accused, S F Kakulte, was employed with the bridges department of the BMC and taken into custody following an interrogation by the Azad Maidan police
Police have arrested a BMC assistant engineer in connection with last month’s foot-over-bridge collapse at CSMT, which left six dead and dozens injured.
According to officials, the accused, S F Kakulte, was employed with the bridges department of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC). He was taken into custody on Monday evening after interrogation by the Azad Maidan police.
“We have arrested an assistant engineer and further investigation is being done by our officers,” said DCP Manjunath Singe, a spokesperson of the Mumbai Police.
Kakulte was booked under IPC section 304A (causing death by negligence).
This is the second arrest in the case. Prior to this, police had arrested structural auditor Neerajkumar Desai in the case, being probed by the Azad Maidan police.
His firm, Prof DD Desai’s Associated Engineering Consultants and Analysts Pvt. Ltd., had reportedly carried out the structural audit of the ill-fated Himalaya bridge last year. Following the audit, Desai had allegedly given clearance for continued use of the bridge.
After the bridge collapsed, Desai was booked under Section 304-II of the Indian Penal Code (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) and arrested on March 18.
A preliminary report into the collapse submitted by the BMC had said the structural audit of the foot overbridge at CSMT railway station in South Mumbai was not carried out correctly.
It suggested major lapses when the structural audit of the FOB was carried out on August 13, 2018.
The FOB, connecting the area near the Times of India building with the iconic Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT) station, collapsed during the evening of March 14, leaving six dead and over 30 others injured.
