AHMEDABAD, India, Jan 27 (Reuters) – Police in India on Friday charged 10 folks with murder in reference to the collapse of a colonial-era footbridge final 12 months that killed no less than 135 folks, a high official informed Reuters.

The 145-year-old suspension bridge within the city of Morbi was filled with sightseers when it collapsed on Oct. 30, plunging tons of into the Machchhu river under. It had reopened after repairs simply days earlier than.

Most of the victims have been girls and youngsters who drowned.

Police within the western state of Gujarat have issued an arrest warrant for the boss of the corporate that managed the bridge and on Friday named him as the primary accused in a cost sheet filed in a Morbi courtroom, stated Ashok Kumar Yadav, a high state police official.

Jaysukh Patel, the managing director of the Oreva Group, greatest identified for making clocks and electrical merchandise, was absconding and a lookout round was issued for him final week to forestall him from leaving the nation, police stated.

The Oreva Group didn’t reply to emailed queries looking for remark. Patel’s cell phone was switched off and textual content messages despatched to him couldn’t be delivered.

Besides Patel, the greater than 1,200-page cost sheet names two managers of the Oreva Group, two ticketing clerks, three safety guards and two folks from a agency contracted by Oreva to restore the bridge earlier than it reopened to the general public, stated Yadav.

Writing by Shivam Patel in New Delhi; Editing by Robert Birsel

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