Flyover tragedy: One more IVRCL officer arrested

One more senior official of the construction company IVRCL was arrested on late Tuesday night in connection with the Vivekananda Flyover tragedy that had claimed 26 lives and left many injured. 

The assistant vice president (Kolkata) Ranjit Bhattacharya was arrested after he was released from a private hospital where he was admitted since the day of the incident. 

Bhattacharya was produced before the Bankshall Court on Wednesday and he was remanded in the custody till April 11. 

The court has ordered the police to provide all sort of medical support to Bhattacharya as he was admitted in hospital till Tuesday. 

With the arrest of Bhattacharya, the total number of arrests in connection with the incident has gone up to nine. All of them are senior officials of the construction company.   

According to the sources, interrogation of Bhattacharya is important to police detective department as he can throw light on many questions which are yet to be answered. 

He knew about various contracts allotted to different companies for the ill fated under-construction bridge. 

The police now want to get more information about the deal of the construction company with the sub-contractors.

Meanwhile, the interrogation of the rest eight arrested officials continued on Wednesday. During interrogation in the past few days, the investigation officers have got subsequent information from the rest apprehended eight personnels.

Bhattacharya was questioned for about an hour on Wednesday evening and will be interrogated again on Thursday, said a police officer.

Meanwhile, a team comprising experts from Kharagpur IIT will be visiting the site of the collapsed flyover. 

It may be mentioned that the Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had announced that the IIT will be carrying out a study to ascertain the faults which led to the collapse.

Sources said that the state government would take decision on its next course of action based on the report of the IIT. 

Thus, senior officials of the state government would hold a meeting with the experts after they visit the spot on Thursday. 

The experts would discuss about the initial plan of the under-construction flyover and about the probable changes. The experts from the IIT would also speak to the senior officials of Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority.   

Meanwhile, the third Public Interest Litigation has been filed with the Calcutta High Court in connection with the flyover collapse tragedy. 

The hearing of the PIL is scheduled on Friday.