Justice Samir Dave of the Gujarat High Court has stepped down from presiding over the bail application of Dineshkumar Dave, a manager of Oreva Group and an accused in the Morbi suspension bridge collapse case. The incident, which occurred on October 30, 2022, tragically claimed the lives of 135 individuals. This marks the second regular bail application filed by the accused.
Justice Dave had previously granted regular bail to five other individuals involved in the case, including three security guards and two booking clerks, all of whom were represented by the same legal team. The state government did not strongly oppose their bail pleas, considering their specific roles as outlined in the chargesheet.
Last week, Jaysukh Patel, the managing director of Oreva Group, filed a bail application in the High Court after being denied bail by a sessions court on April 1. Currently, there are a total of 10 accused individuals in the Morbi bridge collapse case. They have been charged under various sections of the Indian Penal Code, including culpable homicide not amounting to murder (Section 304), attempt to commit culpable homicide (Section 308), act endangering human life (Section 336), causing hurt by rash or negligent act (Section 337), and causing grievous hurt by rash or negligent act (Section 338).
However, in a recent turn of events, Justice Samir Dave recused himself from hearing Dinesh Dave's bail application. This decision came after advocate Utkarsh Dave, representing the "Tragedy Victim Association Morbi," requested to join as a party in the bail application. The association comprises the next of kin of 111 deceased victims and was officially recognized as a registered trust on June 9. Despite this request, Justice Dave declined, stating that the matter should not be brought before him.
In May, when granting bail to the three accused security guards, the public prosecutor had urged the court to specify in the order that the bail was restricted to those three individuals only. This clarification was requested to prevent other accused individuals from using the granted bail as grounds for seeking similar treatment.
It is worth noting that Oreva Group's Managing Director, Jaysukh Patel, has also filed a bail application with the High Court, although the registration of the application is still pending. The chargesheet prepared by the police implicated two Oreva Group managers, Deepak Parekh and Dineshbhai Dave, who allegedly lacked technical knowledge regarding suspension cable bridge work. The chargesheet further alleged that the managers awarded the repair and renovation work to Devprakash Solution at the behest of Jaysukh Patel.
Picture Source : BBC.COM
