TEAM HERALD
bureau@herald-goa.com
CANACONA: After evading arrest for 10 days, Viswhas B Dessai, the contractor of Bharat Developer & Realtors Pvt Ltd who was involved in the collapsed Ruby Residency building, finally surrendered before the Canacona Police and was arrested on Tuesday afternoon.
While he is the first person from the construction company to be arrested in connection with the building collapse, Dessai is the third person to be arrested by Canacona police so far, following the arrests of Canacona Deputy Collector and Canacona Municipal Council Chief Officer Prashant Shirodkar and former Canacona deputy town
Continued on pg 13
planner Prakash Bandodkar.
Canacona PI Harischandra Madkaikar informed that Dessai was arrested under Sections 337, 338, 336, 304 120(b) besides Sections 7 and 13 of IPC after he surrendered at the police station.
“Dessai will be produced before a court to seek remand in due course of time. Canacona Police is also carrying out the formalities to produce Prashant Shirodkar, arrested on Monday night, at the residence of the judge of the court concerned, as Tuesday being a court holiday on account of Id celebrations,” he informed.
It may be recalled that police were pursuing Dessai and others related to the construction of Ruby Residency following the collapse of one building that killed 31 labourers and left several others injured. Contractor Dessai and builders Pardeep Singh Birring and Jugdeep Kumar Shegal were absconding, even as Dessai’s and Birring’s bail pleas were debated in the Sessions Court.
According to Canacona police, the whereabouts of Birring ~ who already moved a court for anticipatory bail ~ are not known, while a police team reportedly continues to camp at Navi Mumbai to take the other builder, Jugdeep Kumar Shegal, into custody.
With the District Sessions Court at Margao denying anticipatory bail to Vishwas Dessai on Monday, sources informed that all the doors were closed and Dessai had no option but to surrender to the police.
There were reports that Dessai’s advocates are contemplating to knock the doors of the High Court with a bail plea, even as police issued a look-out notice to a suspended municipal engineer Ajay Naik Dessai.
Sources informed that Dessai had visited the collapsed site soon after the incident, but was whisked away by his men to avert any unsavoury incident as agitated people began to arrive in hundreds on hearing the news of the accident killing several labourers.
