In a significant ruling, Sessions Judge V.M. Pathade rejected the defense put forward by engineer Manoj Ramkrishna Sangu in the infamous Mumbai hoarding collapse case. The court clarified that the incident was not an act of nature but a result of negligence.
Engineer Manoj Ramkrishna Sangu, who had been in jail for over a month and a half, was granted bail. Sangu, a structural engineer and consultant, had designed the hoarding for Ego Media Private Limited. His lawyer, D.S. Manerkar, argued in court that Sangu had not issued any completion certificate to the contractor who erected the hoarding tower.
Manerkar argued that the hoarding collapsed due to cyclonic winds blowing at speeds of 80 to 100 kilometers per hour, which is a natural occurrence. He maintained that Sangu was not responsible for the incident and had been falsely implicated. It was also pointed out that the Crime Branch had already seized all relevant materials on May 30.
Additional Prosecutor Iqbal Solkar, representing the Crime Branch, opposed the bail application. Solkar cited a report from the Structural Engineering Department of Veermata Jijabai Technological Institute, which stated that the design and construction of the hoarding structure’s foundation were incomplete, leading to its collapse.
Solkar explained that the hoarding structure was completed in February 2022, and Sangu issued a certificate in April 2023 without confirming the structure’s stability. The collapse resulted in the deaths of 17 people, injuries to over 80 individuals, and damage to approximately 79 vehicles, causing losses worth crores of rupees. The investigation into various facts is still ongoing.
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The court found from the VJTI report that the foundation’s resistance capacity in high winds was only 7000 kNm, while the wind pressure on May 13 was 21000 kNm. Thus, the report concluded that the hoarding structure collapsed due to the incomplete design and construction of the foundation.
