'Morbi bridge clerks were black marketing tickets'

As two booking clerks of the Morbi suspension bridge have sought bail from the Gujarat high court, the victims' counsel on Wednesday objected to the bail pleas, claiming that the accused had been black-marketing tickets and allowed the bridge to get overcrowded.

At the time of the collapse of the bridge on the evening of October 30, 2022, there were more than 300 people on the bridge.

Of them, 135 lost their lives after drowning in the Machchhu river. Police arrested 10 persons including the two booking clerks - Madev Solanki and Mansukh Topiya.

Also arrested was Jaysukh Patel, the CMD of Ajanta Manufacturing Pvt Ltd of Oreva Group, which was managing the bridge and had recently got it repaired and refurbished.

After the high court granted bail to three security guards, Solanki and Topiya approached it for bail, claiming innocence.

Their counsel B B Naik submitted that there were no instructions to them from any authority about how many people could be allowed on the bridge at a particular point in time. 

The victim's advocate told the court that the maximum limit on the bridge was 100 persons, but there were 400 people on it.