Deepak Parekh, a manager of the Oreva company responsible for the maintenance of Gujarat’s Morbi bridge, which recently collapsed, killing 135 people, told a court that it was “the will of God” that the mishap occurred.
Parekh is one of the nine people arrested after the 150-year-old bridge broke down on Sunday. “Everyone worked very hard, from the managing director of the company to the lower level employees, but it was the will of God that such an unfortunate event happened,” he told Chief Judicial Magistrate MJ Khan.
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Apart from Parekh, another manager of the Oreva Group and two sub-contractors have been taken into police custody following the tragedy. Among the five other arrested include security guards and ticket booking clerks who have been taken into judicial custody.
Who is Deepak Parekh?
Parekh worked for the Oreva Group, which is a private company tasked with renovating the bridge. Oreva, primarily a manufacturer of clocks and electrical equipment, had claimed at the time that they used “improved technologies” while reworking the bridge and that the repairs made by them should have remained in place for at least eight to 10 years without any danger to the public.
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The rehabilitation of this bridge cost Rs 2 crore, the bridge could take the weight of only about 125 people,” a senior official of the company had said. However, on Sunday, the bridge was crammed with at least 400 people when it collapsed.
Parekh had also weighed in on the same, reiterating that the bridge was constructed at a time when technology was limited and as a result, only wooden planks and timbers were used. He was the one who obtained the required raw materials in keeping with the bridge’s standards and technical specifications.
The bridge was originally built in 1887 by the erstwhile Morbi ruler Vaghji Thakor. It was officially opened to the public by Oreva Group’s managing director (MD) Jaysukh Patel and his family in the presence of the media on October 26.
According to the local officials, the company had not alerted authorities that the bridge would reopen last week after completing the renovations. They also accused the company of not obtaining any fitness certificate for the same.
