Furniture walas get anticipatory bail in Mahim building collapse

The sessions court on Monday granted anticipatory bail to the Furniturwala brothers, owners of Aftab Manzil building, which collapsed last month.

Furniture walas get anticipatory bail in Mahim building collapse

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The sessions court on Monday granted anticipatory bail to the Furniturwala brothers, owners of Aftab Manzil building, which collapsed last month.

Three brothers and sons of former owner of the building — Sharif, Mohammed Ali and Irfan — had filed anticipatory bail applications on June 18, after advocate Rizwan Merchant, who lost three of his family members in the tragedy, registered a complaint with Mahim police on June 15.

Merchant had alleged that the brothers delayed the process of forming a society due to which repairs and maintenance of the building could not take place.

The court on June 19, granting interim protection to the Furniturwala brothers, observed, “Looking into the complaint, the applicants are the owners of the premises. However, the main allegations are against one Bafna who is yet to be traced, and there is no direct nexus between the applicants and Bafna.”

The brothers contended that they were not responsible for the incident and had transferred the property to the tenants, and that the owners of flats were responsible for the collapse as they had made alterations to their flats without proper permissions.