The Ruby building collapse criminal case needs a fresh impartial investigation

The builders of Ruby Residency and the government officials who have been discharged by the court, with the charges against them for criminal negligence in the collapse of the Ruby Residency building in Canacona, quashed, are now free to move on, and get back to business

While builders Pardip Singh Birring and Jugdeep Sehgal, have the strength of the law to put the collapse of the building behind them and go about their business, it is absolutely imperative for the sake of the families who have lost their lives and for those whose investments have been sunk, to get another opportunity to appeal against this order. And the state must not let them down and approach the higher courts with all their might. A reinvestigation can also be asked for by the affected families, since the current investigation appears to have been completely compromised

This is a hard and a cruel truth the families will have to swallow. The investigations in to the Ruby tragedy have been decidedly shoddy. The courts do not investigate. They pronounce judgments based on the facts before them. In fact the order of the South Goa sessions Judge B P Deshpande points out the glaring gaps in the investigation itself.

Some of the glaring omissions deal with the fact there was no material brought before the judge to prove that the builders had asked the contractors to use sub standard material to lower construction costs. There was also n material to link the project proponents (the builder) to the actual contractors and unite them in a nexus of criminal negligence . The primary liability of the contractor for all accidents and mishaps on the site is clearly documented which actually, on paper absolves the builders from carrying out any act, which could lead to the loss of lives through an accident of this magnitude.

There is also no evidence either direct, or through a well documented maze of digital footprints to show any unholy nexus or dalliance between the builders and the government, whereby files of the project were passéd in undue haste to favour early commencement and construction.

It will be, at this stage, extremely prudent to take into account the findings of the V K Jha Commission of inquiry, which stated that poor conceptual designs, inherent faulty structural design and defective execution of work at the site and other factors led to the collapse of Ruby Residency in Canacona on January 4, 2014. This report was presented in the Goa legislative assembly. Headed by V K Jha as chairman, it had K G Guptha, the head of civil engineering, Goa engineering college, Farmagudi who had been entrusted with the task of finding out the immediate and proximate causes and determine the circumstances and sequences leading to for the building collapse.

The Jha Commission named Canacona Police station as the ‘prime accused’ in the January 2014 Ruby Residency building tragedy for failing to act against the culprits in June 2012, when the building had collapsed the first time.

The Commission has also fixed responsibility on eight government officials of the rank of town planner, municipal administrator, local municipal council chief and deputy collector along with the builders and contractors attached to Bharat Developers and Realtors Pvt Ltd for the collapse of the building that killed 31 people and injured several others. 

The Commission recommended that a proper mechanism needed to be put in place to undertake periodic structural audit of existing buildings within five years of the issue of occupancy certificate. 

 “The negligent act of the police assumes significance in view of the fact that the same building collapsed on 29 June 2012, and the investigation in the case, FIR of which was filed under sections 336, 337 and 338 of IPC was still pending, (at the time of the 2014 collapse)” the report highlighted

The commission had rightly zeroed in on the utter slackness of the investigation process, which clearly is the reason why the judgment has gone against the prosecution.

“No efforts were made to nab the culprit including the builders and contractor Vishwas Dessai (also accused in the 2014 case and arrested and out on bail). There was an unexplained delay on the part of Goa police to investigate the 2012 incident and they cannot escape the responsibility,” the Jha Commission said. “Had adequate steps been taken, who knows the tragic incident that occurred on January 4, 2014 could have been averted,” the commission observed.

The Commission observed that the NOC and construction licences were given to the builder without verification and as per the project proponent’s demand. No site inspection was also undertaken by the concerned officials.

The Commission also held that the builders – Pradip Singh Birring and Jugdeep Kumar Sehagal – were to be held responsible for the disaster. The commission had also named contractors and other material suppliers as the accused.

The investigation should have focussed on and in fact have been based on the route adopted by the Jha commission, where it zeroed in on the identifiable irregularities in according various sanctions to the project. This would have helped establish that safety of the structure was not a priority because of the manner in which it was thrown to the winds as the project was fast tracked.

Honestly, this investigation clearly appeared to be out of depth for the Canacona police and should have been handled by a Special Investigation Team , since over a 30 lives were lost.

Therefore, a group ,of public spirited lawyers, on behalf of the victims, must approach the High Court for directions to re-open the investigations to be monitored by the court  since a mere appeal against the Sessions Court order may not  be enough. The State, on its part, should agree to cooperate, since the final outcome of this case will benchmark Goa’s priorities on building construction safety.