The Mahim police, on Saturday, registered a case of negligence against 7 persons for allegedly causing the collapse of the Altaf Manzil last week. Sandeepkumar Bafna, owner of Fort Point Motors showroom, brothers Sharif, Irfan and Mohammed Furniturewala, Iqbal Ibrahim, the owner of the basement on the south side of the building, along with officials in the G-North ward office of the BMC and other civic officials, have been named as the accused in the FIR by advocate Rizwan Merchant. Mr Merchant lost his wife, son and mother. He personally blamed the BMC for neglecting his letters.
The accused have been booked under Sections 120 B (criminal conspiracy), 34 (common intention), 338 (grievous hurt), 288 (negligence with regard to repairing building), 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) and 336 (act endangering life and personal safety). The FIR was registered following a complaint made by Mr Merchant himself. His complaint in the FIR accuses the Furniturewala brothers of delaying the society registration of the “conveyance deed”, which prevented the tenants from redeveloping and repairing the building.
While Bafna and Ibrahim have been accused of making illegal structural changes in the building, the BMC officers are alleged to have ignored repeated complaints by Mr Merchant on the issue since November 2008.
Speaking to mediapersons later, he broke down and said that he will make it a “personal mission” to put in place a system where dilapidated buildings are immediately acted upon, and complaints about illegal construction are taken seriously.