Bombay HC rejects trustee’s bail plea in Dongri collapse case – Times of India

MUMBAI: Bombay high court rejected the bail plea of Ali Shroff, a trustee of Bai Hirabai Rahimbhai Aloo Paroo Trust, accused of culpable homicide not amounting to murder in a police case that followed collapse of a portion of Kesarbai Mansion, Dongri, killing 13 persons in July last year.
“While considering if a person is entitled to be released on bail, being accused of a non-bailable offence, the nature and gravity of the accusation is a prominent factor to be needed,” said Justice Bharati Dangre in her August 13 order. “An incident which transformed the fantasy of every dreamer coming to the city of Mumbai to have his own ‘home’ into a nightmare… Prima facie material collected by prosecution…” points to his involvement of “having knowledge of consequences of the act” of turning a blind eye to tenanted premises which were “thoroughly dilapidated”.
The judge after hearing Shroff’s counsel A P Mundargi and additional public prosecutor Swapnil Pednekar, as well as advocate Zain Shroff for an intervenor, Huma Jariwala, a survivor who lost her brother and 12-year-old niece, observed how the collapse dominated headlines on July 16, when “Mumbai awoke of a melancholy” mood. Of three women who died one married six months before.