‘Act of god’: Oreva manager tells court on Gujarat’s Morbi bridge collapse

One of the lawyers defending an accused in the Gujarat bridge collapse tragedy in which 135 people were killed had argued in the court that it was an “act of God” (Bhagwan ki ichcha) and that is why the arrest of the accused was not right, Dilip, former president of the Morbi Bar Association said.

“The accused inside the court framed the mishap as an ‘act of god’, but as per the FIR registered in the case, it is a case of ‘criminal negligence’, and not an ‘act of god’,” news agency ANI quoted Dilip as saying.

The comment was reportedly made by Deepak Parekh, a manager of the Oreva company which repaired the 150-year-old suspension bridge in Morbi. Parekh is among the nine persons arrested after the bridge crashed on Sunday.

Lawyers in Morbi on Wednesday held a protest march, voicing their refusal to fight the case for all the nine accused.

“The Morbi Bar Association and Rajkot Bar Association have decided to not take the case of nine people arrested in the Morbi tragedy and represent them. Both the Bar Associations have passed this Resolution,” AC Prajapati, senior advocate, Morbi Bar Association said.

The bridge above the Machchhu River in the Morbi district collapsed on October 30. Visuals showed people falling into the river below.

The Gujarat Police has filed an FIR under IPC sections 304 and 308 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) against the nine people of Oreva group, accused in the bridge collapse tragedy.

The Gujarat government has constituted a five-member committee to probe the bridge collapse incident.