Nine persons, including the suspended deputy commissioner of Thane Municipal Corporation, arrested in connection with the building collapse in Thane district, were today remanded to police custody till April 20.
The arrests and ongoing investigations are pointing to connivance among civic officials, unscrupulous builders and police, and how the authorities turned a blind eye to the spate of illegal structures in the area apparently for pecuniary gains, police said.
"The builders bribed public servants, including the civic authorities, police and an elected corporator, with lakhs of rupees to ensure that the construction work continued without any hindrance," Thane Police Commissioner K P Raghuvanshi said in a press conference today.
He said police recovered Rs 5 lakh cash and some incriminating documents from the residence of suspended deputy commissioner of Thane Municipal Corporation Deepak Chavan, who was arrested yesterday.
The death toll in the building collapse mounted to 74 on the last count after the illegal structure, located in Lucky Compound in Mumbra near Shil Phata area, came down crashing on Thursday evening.
"From documents recovered from the arrested builders, it is established that they paid timely bribes, running in lakhs as per initial estimate, to the deputy municipal commissioner, assistant municipal commissioner, the senior clerk, the corporator and the police constable. We have detailed documentary evidence to support this," Raghuvansi said.
He said investigation in the case was at initial stage and more people are likely to be arrested.
Among the nine persons sent to police remand by a holiday court, Abdul Salim Aziz Siddiqui and Jameel Ahmed Jalaluddin Sheikh are builders, whereas Babasaheb Andhale is the assistant municipal commissioner.
