3 civic engineers, contractor jailed for structure collapse

A local court has sentenced three engineers of Nashik Municipal Corporation (NMC) and a government contractor to two-year rigorous imprisonment in connection with the collapse of a welcome arch, built by the civic body, in which three persons were killed in 2011.
District and Sessions Court Judge S N Pathak, in his judgement delivered yesterday, also imposed a fine of Rs 10,000 on each of them.
The convicted NMC employees are Uday Dharmadhikari (Executive Engineer), Sunil Roundal (Deputy Engineer) and Mohd Khalid Mohd Gous (Branch Engineer).
The contractor found guilty in the case is Kishor Murlidhar Erande. Two supervisors working with the contractor were acquitted for lack of evidence.

The welcome arch set up by municipal authorities collapsed and fell on an auto-rickshaw that was passing by the area in Soubhagya Nagar at Deolali Camp near here on January 18, 2011. The auto-rickshaw driver and two passengers, one of them a minor boy, were killed in the mishap.
Over 10 witnesses were examined by the court, said A J Deshmukh, the Government counsel.