TEAM HERALD
teamherald@herald-goa.com
MARGAO: The builders of the collapsed Ruby Residency are still at large, even as Tuesday marked two months since the tragedy claimed the lives of 31 persons, mostly labourers working in the ill-fated building.
While the building contractor Vishwas Desai, the three former Canacona Municipal Chief Officers, Dipak Desai, Pradip Naik and Prashant Shirodkar, former Municipal engineer Ajay Desai and deputy town planner Prakash Bandodkar are behind bars, the Crime Branch investigating into the tragedy has failed to lay its hands on the two builders – Jugdeep Sehgal and Pradip Singh Birring. Co-incidentally, the crime branch on Tuesday attached a BMW owned by the two builders – the second vehicle attached by the investigating agency in the last one week. Though the Crime Branch had issued a look-out and red-corner notice against the absconding builders, it has not helped the investigating agency to zero in on the two former directors of Ms Bharat Developers. Though it is believed that the two builders must have fled the country, Crime Branch sleuths say that both Sehgal and Birring are still holed up in the country. A senior Crime Branch official said the investigating agency has attached the properties of Ms Bharat Developers valued at around Rs 30 crore, besides the two vehicles. “We have mounted enough pressure on the two absconding builders to surrender and assist in the investigation. The law will take its own course”, remarked a Crime Branch sleuth.
The Crime Branch has also attached the residential flat at Aquem of the absconding former Canacona municipal engineer Ashank Gaonkar.
In the meantime, the Special Judge Margao, Nutan Sardesai, will hear the bail application filed by arrested former CMC engineer Ajay Desai. The CB is also expected to file a status report on the progress of the probe.
