Mahim building case given to crime branch

S Ahmed Ali TNN

August 8
Mumbai: The state home department on Tuesday transferred the Altaf Manzil collapse case from the Mahim police to the Mumbai crime branch following complaints from flat owners that the probe was moving at a snail’s pace.
    Ten people were killed and six seriously injured when the Mahim building collapsed on June 10. Lawyer Rizwan Merchant, who lost three family members, welcomed the transfer order. “The Mahim police did not investigate properly. Dedicated officers are needed to handle such a sensitive case since BMC staff and officers are involved.”
    The Mahim police made only two arrests: Iqbal Ibrahim (who bought a ground-floor property in the building and leased it to Sundeep Kumar Bafna for a showroom) and Praveen Rane, a junior engineer with the BMC. Ibrahim’s arrest came after his plea for anticipatory bail was rejected by the sessions court. The court had issued a non-bailable warrant against Bafna, but the police made no attempts to trace or arrest him, said an Altaf Manzil tenant. “Once the warrant was issued, it was the duty of the investigating officer to initiate the process of declaring Bafna absconding to force him to surrender.”
    A source said that when Rane was produced in court for a second time for further remand, neither the police nor the public prosecutor pressed for his custody. Joint commissioner of police (crime) Himanshu Roy has assigned the case to the crime branch’s unit 5, asking it to submit a report in a month. ALTAF MANSION CRASH
INCIDENT Altaf Mansion, officially Aftab Manzil, in Mahim collapsed on
June 10 10 people were killed 6 were injured
Property worth
crores
was destroyed
NAMES IN FIR
    Furniturewala brothers Irfan, Mohammed Ali and Sharif (sons of deceased landlord Altaf) Iqbal Ibrahim, who bought a ground-floor showroom
Sundeep Kumar Bafna, to whom the showroom was leased
Iqbal Ibrahim, who bought a groundfloor showroom Sundeep Kumar Bafna, to whom the showroom was leased
CHARGES IPC sections | 308, attempt to commit culpable homicide; 288, negligent conduct with respect to repairing or pulling down buildings; 304, punishment for culpable homicide not amounting to murder; 336 & 338, endangering life or personal safety of others; 120B, punishment for criminal conspiracy
HC rejects bail for BMC engineer The high court has rejected the anticipatory bail application of Digambar Satam, a subengineer with the BMC, observing that there was prima facie evidence against him in the Aftab Manzil collapse case. The court will hear on Wednesday applications filed by the state government and advocate Rizwan Merchant seeking cancellation of anticipatory bail granted to landlord Irfan Furniturewala. TNN
BMC REPORT The BMC says no major alteration to the building’s structural frame was observed and the crash was caused by poor construction material