AHMEDABAD: Two booking clerks, Adevabhai Solanki, and Mansukhbhai Topiya, were granted regular bail by the Gujarat high court in relation to the October 30, 2022, Morbi suspension bridge collapse disaster, which resulted in the deaths of 135 people.
Justice Samir Dave ordered the bail. Three security guards who were posted at the bridge on the disaster day had previously been granted bail by the HC. The Ticket Booking clerk defended their innocence in the matter.
The court questioned the attorneys during the hearing, "Shall I observe that section 304A of the IPC is applicable in this case?" The judge declared after some deliberation that "in this court's opinion, section 304 of the IPC is not applicable." In response, the public Prosecutor Mitesh Amin claimed that the trial court should have the final say over the accusations in the case rather than the high court making such an observation.
Earlier, on June 7, the family of the victims had already protested the bail requests. Advocate Rahul Sharma, who is representing the victims of the bridge collapse told Justice Samir Dave that the clerks "were black marketing these tickets, which resulted in the bridge being overloaded."
However, they acknowledged that there was no reference to black-marketing in the chargesheet during the hearing on Friday. It was argued that the accused's involvement went well beyond merely issuing an excessive number of tickets which led to congestion on the bridge.
According to the charge sheet, around 3,165 tickets were sold on the day of the incident. The two ticket clerks Madevbhai Solanki and Mansukhbhai Topiya failed to stop issuing tickets despite being aware that there was an increase in traffic on the bridge, displaying egregious negligence on their part.
Alpesh Gohil, Dilip Gohil, and Mukesh Chauhan, security guards for Oreva Group's Ajanta Manufacturing Pvt Ltd, which managed the bridge, were granted bail by the HC last month.
The case's ten accused, including Oreva Group MD Jaysukh Patel, are charged under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).