Bail relief for 10 Metro officials

A city court on Monday granted bail to 22 persons, including 10 senior Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) officials, charge-sheeted over a 2009 Metro pillar collapse in Zamrudpur.

A city court on Monday granted bail to 22 persons, including 10 senior Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) officials, charge-sheeted over a 2009 Metro pillar collapse in Zamrudpur.

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The other 12 accused were employees of two private companies.

Additional chief metropolitan magistrate Sanjay Sharma granted bail to all 22 persons on a personal bond of Rs. 10,000 each with a surety of equal amount.

On July 12, 2009, an under-construction girder on the Central Secretariat-Badarpur Metro line had collapsed, killing eight persons and injuring 12 workers at the project site.

In its chargesheet filed on July 5, the Delhi police had named 24 persons, including 11 DMRC officials, accusing them of being negligent during construction of the metro pillar in Zamrudpur.

The two accused denied bail were DMRC official Vivek Prakash Srivastava and Amrik Singh of Gammon India Ltd, who failed to appear before the court.

Srivastava’s counsel told the court that his client did not appear as he had not got the summons. The court issued fresh summons and asked him to appear before it on August 18, the next date of hearing. Singh sought exemption through his counsel from personal appearance saying he was not in the city.

The crime branch chargesheet has held the DMRC, Gammon India Ltd and Arch consultancy responsible for causing deaths by approving a “faulty design”.

Those charge-sheeted in the 6,104-page document, include DMRC’s erstwhile Chief Engineer (Design) Rajan Kataria.