Mumbai bridge auditor Neeraj Kumar Desai arrested, booked for negligence

Days after the collapse of a foot overbridge near the CST Station in Mumbai that claimed the lives of six people, Neeraj Desai of D D Desai Associate Engineering Consultants who audited the bridge was arrested by the police on Monday. He has been booked for negligence. The company has also been issued a show cause notice. In 2016, Professor D D Desai's Associated Engineering Consultant & Analysis Pvt had audited the bridge, and found it in “good condition”.

Recently, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation's (BMC) vigilance department has submitted its preliminary report in the collapse on March 14. The preliminary report has blamed the structural consultants of negligence and recommended police action against them, according to officials.

The report said that the structural audit of the foot overbridge at CST was not carried out correctly. It suggested that major lapses occurred when the structural audit of the bridge was carried out on August 13, 2018.

"There is a prima facie reason to believe that the structural audit has been conducted in an irresponsible and negligent manner. This tragedy could have been avoided if the structural audit had been done diligently," said the probe report.