Charge sheet against 27 for Thane building crash

Over two months after 74 people were killed in a building collapse, the police on Monday filed a charge sheet against 27 accused, which included real estate developers, civic officials and a local corporator.

The 3,000-page document, which has shown five accused as absconding, was filed in the Thane district court by Crime Branch, which probed the April 4 crash of the seven-storey illegal building at Mumbra.

Sixty others were injured in what had been described as the worst such incident in Thane district. The accused have been charged with culpable homicide not amounting to murder and relevant sections of Prevention of Corruption Act, among others, the police said.

The accused include two builders Abdul Salim Aziz Siddiqui, and Jamil Ahmed Jalaluddin Shaikh (who built the structure), Thane Deputy Municipal Commissioners Deepak Chavan, Sreekant Sarmokdam; Assistant Municipal Commissioners Babasaheb Andale, Shyam Thorbole, civic engineer Subash Rawal, municipal  officer Subash Waghmare, Corporator Hira Patil, Constable Jehangir Sayyed. Material suppliers, a local journalist and a photographer, among others, also face various charges.

The police have blamed a nexus among builders, Thane municipal officials and the corporator, who belongs to the nationalist Congress Party, for the tragedy. Thane Municipal Corporation officials have been accused of turning a blind eye to the unauthorised construction after taking bribes.

Two of the accused, Ramdas Burud, driver to one of the accused civic officers, and Afroz Ansari, who had supplied materials for the ill-fated building, are on bail, while others are in jail.

The five absconding accused include three partners of the arrested builders.