Accused in house collapse case seeks discharge: HC admits plea

The Bombay High Court has admitted a petition filed by a former Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC) official, seeking discharge in a house collapse case, in which 74 persons were killed and over 60 others injured.
Former Deputy Municipal Commissioner of TMC, Srikant Rajaram Sarmokdam, had filed the discharge application.
Justice A M Badar, while admitting Sarmokdam's petition, also stayed the proceedings of the case pending in a Thane sessions court.
"Till the disposal of the revision petition, proceedings in the Special Case No 17 of 2013, pending in the court of learned Additional Sessions Judge, Thane, qua the petitioner accused are hereby stayed," the HC judge said in his order recently.

Sarmokdam is accused no. 22 in the case and his revision petition in the HC is also listed as no. 22 of 2016. It is more commonly known as the infamous Lucky Compound case.
The accused was serving as DMC of Thane civic body and he is one of the 27 accused in the case.

Eight storey Adarsh-B building near Mumbra crashed in 2013, killing 74 persons and injuring more than 60, some of them seriously.
Those facing the trial include civic staff, builders, middlemen, a corporator and a policeman, among others.
Sarmokdam, who retired from service, had filed an application in the Thane district court seeking discharge from the case.

The district court, on November 30, 2015, had rejected his application for discharge on various grounds. Sarmokdam has challenged the order in his petition filed recently in the high court, which recently stayed the proceedings against him in the trial court till the disposal of the petition in HC.