Victims’ kin get involved developer’s bail hearing

Mumbai: The Bombay high court (HC) on Friday allowed families of the victims of the July 2017 building collapse in Ghatkopar to intervene in the bail hearing of developer Sunil Shitap, who is the prime accused in the case.

Shitap filed a bail plea in the HC last month after the sessions court refused to grant him bail. His bail application was slated to be heard on Friday, when 11 family members of the persons who lost their kin and their homes in the collapse approached the court, seeking permission to intervene in the matter so that they could assist the government pleader in opposing his application.

Interveners have contended that Shitap and his family members bought flats on the ground floor of the Siddhi Sai building which collapsed last year, and allegedly converted the use of the premises from residential to commercial, without any prior permission or consent of the society. They further alleged that he carried out extensive alterations in the flats, removed all load bearing internal walls, and also removed six columns and beams of the collapsed building. According to these families, the accused altered and weakened the building’s foundation structure.

Shitap has denied all the allegations levelled against him. In the bail plea, he has contended that according to 2015 structural audit report, there was an immediate need to repair the building but the society did not took any steps to do so.

His lawyer, Mateen Shaikh, in the bail application, said that Shitap had handed over the repair work to a contractor and that Shitap could not be held responsible for the collapse, as it was an accident.