A year after Morbi bridge collapse, Gujarat HC grants bail to manager of Oreva Group

Ahmedabad: Over a year after the collapse of a suspension bridge in Gujarat's Morbi town that killed 135 people, the Gujarat High Court on Friday granted regular bail to the manager of the clock-making firm Oreva, primarily on the grounds that the investigation was over and trial of the case was not going to commence anytime soon.

The single bench of justice Nirzar Desai allowed the bail application of Dinesh Dave on conditions that he would not enter the limits of Morbi as well as Rajkot district except on the date of court appearances. The court said that it was inclined to release Dave on bail since he was behind bars since his arrest on October 31, 2022, a day after the bridge collapsed. 

Dave was working as a manager of the Oreva company of Ajanta Group and was also one of the supervisors of bridge maintenance work undertaken by the clock-making firm. Dave has been chargesheeted by the local police as accused number-two who was responsible for looking after the maintenance work despite not having any technical knowledge related to the work. 

During the hearing, his lawyers told the court that Dave is a commerce graduate and working in the company as a manager. His lawyers said that he was drawing Rs1130 per day as salary from the company. His lawyers argued that he was only following the instructions of his managing director, Jaysukh Patel. Patel is accused-one in the case. The high court also considered that prima facie records indicated that Dave was not involved in the decision making process.

Besides, the high court also granted bail in view of the fact that five co-accused have already been enlarged on bail. The police have chargesheeted ten accused out of whom six including Dave have been granted bail. Among those who are behind bars include Jaysukh Patel, another manager and supervisor Dipak Parekh and Prakash and Devang Parmar. The Parmars are the proprietors of Devprakash Solutions, the firm which carried out the repair work.

On 30th October, 2022, the British-era pedestrian suspension bridge collapsed in Morbi town resulting in the death of 135 people in the Machchu river. Investigation revealed that the incident was a result of lapses at administrative level to follow due procedure as per government norms and also due to technical incompetence to repair the bridge and test it before opening it to the public. 

A special investigation team (SIT) report stated that prima facie, the whole management of Oreva company, its managing director Patel, two managers, Dinesh Dave and Deepak Parekh, were responsible.