Virar building that caved in was planned by an amateur

The Ramabai Apartment collapse in Virar, caused by substandard construction and lack of expert advice, killed 17. Actions are underway against involved parties.

MUMBAI: The floor plan and blueprint of the four-storied Ramabai Apartment in Virar, which collapsed on August 26, killing 17 people, was constructed by its landowner without taking any technical advice or hiring an architect. The landowner had employed a labour contractor and used substandard construction material which led to the collapse of the building, according to the chargesheet filed by the Mira-Bhayander-Vasai-Virar (MBVV) police’s crime branch. The 4,015-page chargesheet was submitted in the Vasai magistrate’s court on Thursday.

Palghar: A four-storey unauthorised building collapsed onto adjacent vacant chawl, at Virar, in Palghar district, Thursday, Aug. 28, 2025. 15 dead, several injured in the incident. (PTI Photo)(PTI08_28_2025_000276B) (PTI)

After the building’s collapse, the Virar police had registered a case against the contractor Nital Sane and the land owner Parshuram Dalvi, who had passed away by then. Sane was found guilty and a case was registered against him. He is currently in jail.

The 4,015-page charge sheet was submitted on Thursday.

According to the chargesheet, which has the statements of 115 people, including a few experts, Sane revealed that he and Dalvi had not employed an architect and had also converted already constructed 1-BHK apartments into 2-BHKs without any expert advice, which were then sold to buyers.

‘12-year-old structure wasn’t strong enough to stand for 2 years’: PWD officer

To establish that the building plan was drawn up by an amateur, the crime branch asked the PWD department to draw the final plan of the collapsed building based on the revelation of Sane who gave them the floorplan. “The structure was 12 years old but after examining the plan, we found that it was not even strong enough to stand for two years,” said a PWD officer.

The officer said the structure was not built in the “legally correct way”. “We have asked the police to hire a structural engineer and a design engineer to record the exact faults in the structure; however, in our opinion, the foundation dimension and scale design were not consistent with the structure’s height,” said the PWD officer. “Moreover, there was just a three-metre gap between foundations of the two buildings, resulting in uneven settlement, due to which one entire part of the building collapsed.”

Crime branch officers said that the building was constructed in 2012 but a structural audit was done by the Vasai-Virar City Municipal Corporation (VVCMC) only in 2018. The then assistant commissioner Subhash Jadhav had found the building to be unauthorised but had only issued a notice to Dalvi and Sane without registering an FIR; neither did he evict the residents and demolish the structure.

In 2025, current assistant commissioner Gilson Gonsalves also conducted an audit but did not take action either. “He issued a repair notice without demolishing the building when it was dangerous. Therefore, the names of both Gonsalves and Jadhav have been added to the chargesheet,” said a crime branch officer. Both the officers, citing health reasons, did not turn up to record their statements on Saturday.

The police recorded the statements of former executive engineer Rajendra Lad and deputy engineer Eknath Thackeray, who were asked why a water connection was provided and house tax imposed on an unauthorised building. “Both said that the municipal corporation had earlier decided to provide water connections to unauthorised constructions and impose house tax,” said the crime branch officer. “They also said that only the assistant commissioner had the authority to take action against unauthorised buildings and that they were just obeying orders.”

While VVCMC authorities said that both Gonsalves and Jadhav had failed to follow due procedure since the building was categorised as C2B (dilapidated but habitable) in February 2025, a VVCMC officer claimed that by sending notices, both had acted legally according to the Maharashtra Municipal Corporation Act, 1949.

“The builder and owner of the plot were supposed to carry out repairs but due to an internal dispute between the builder and the residents, this was not done,” he said. “The residents were given notice to evict but they refused outright. There are more than 300 FIRs registered by us against various builders in Vasai-Virar based on structural audits. However, we have to wait for a court order to evict residents or demolish a building.”

The crime branch officer said that they had written to the Enforcement Directorate and the income-tax department to scrutinise the financial records of both officials, after which a supplementary chargesheet will be submitted against Gonsalves, Jadhav and other officials involved. “There will be more names added to the supplementary chargesheet,” said the officer.

Anil Jovil, who lost three members of his family in the crash, said that Dalvi and Sane had “played with the lives of the residents by constructing houses which were no stronger than mud houses on top of each other”. “The residents kept insisting on repairs but Sane ignored them,” he said. “The VVCMC officials are equally responsible for the deaths of my son, daughter-in-law and one-year-old granddaughter as they turned a blind eye to the illegal construction and then did not even make sure that it was repaired.”

“We will now request the CM to consider the rights of the residents of Ramabai Apartment in case of cluster development at the same spot in future,” said social activist Dinesh Kamble who has been fighting for the rights of the injured and families of the deceased.