Mumbai building collapse: HC reprieve for lawyer, BMC staff

MUMBAI: Days after the collapse of a seven storey building in Santacruz, Bombay high court in an interim order has directed the police not to take any coercive action against the lawyer, whose family was fighting a legal battle had refused to move out of the structure, BMC officers and the advocates in the case. The lawyer Sindha Sridharan who lost her sister in the incident as well as the BMC's advocate told a division bench of Justice Anoop Mohta and Justice M S Sonak that they apprehended that the police may arrest them in the case.
Seven persons were killed and four injured when the building Shankar Lok collapsed on March 14, 2014. Sridharan was one of the two families who were staying in the building after the BMC had declared the building as dilapidated. Sridharan and her family had waged a battle in the high court and had obtained s stay on their eviction. Sridharan's sister died in the incident, while her brother was injured. The police had registered an FIR after the building collapse.
Meanwhile the court issued notices to BMC officials and the local Shiv Sena corporator and her husband on a criminal petition filed by Sridharan alleging that she was being forced to vacate the building.