Ghatkopar building collapse: Shiv Sena man, civil contractor blame each other

MUMBAI: Shiv Sena man Sunil Shitap, who is the prime accused in the Ghatkopar building collapse, and civil contractor, Anil Mandal, who was supervising renovation work at the former’s flats, have blamed each other for the tragedy which killed 17 persons. Both have been arrested.
Shitap told the police that Mandal and his labourers working at the flats were at fault for having disturbed the crucial load-bearing RCC pillars.Mandal, meanwhile, has told the police that he and his six workers were simply executing Shitap’s and interior designer Ranjeet Agale’s orders.
“Shitap has said that Mandal was working at the flats since 15 days and after removing the plaster of the walls and pillars, he should have understood the iron inside had rusted,” said an officer. Mandal told police that Agale, who claims to be an architect, had appointed him to carry out contractor work but it was actually Shitap who used to give orders.
“Shitap and Mandal are blaming each other. Until Agale is arrested, it will be difficult to understand who is telling the truth. We will get them face to face tomorrow,” a police source said.
Police have come to know that residents of Siddhi Sai building were unhappy with Shitap since a long time. Flat owners did not approve of Shitap using the flats for commercial purposes and that is why, Shitap and the residents had got to two different audits of the building done.
In 2015, Shitap got an audit done from a private company in Goregaon, whose report stated the structure was weak. “We had asked the BMC to audit the building and the civic architect had stated the building was fit and only needed some repairs,” said Lalchand Ramchandani, one of the crash survivors.
Police said they will take help from forensic labs and IIT experts to know the cause of the collapse. The police were also provided with documents related to the building by the BMC inquiry committee on Monday. A hunt in on Agale, who is believed to be holed up in Pune.