Pratap Panda, owner of Panda Infra, the construction company that had undertaken the contract for the Bomikhal flyover here, and two others were on Tuesday sent to judicial custody after being produced in a local court.
The bail pleas of Pratap Panda, suspended Works Department Assistant Engineer Kishore Rout and Panda Infra project manager Vipul Chakraborty were rejected by the court, following which they were remanded to judicial custody for 14 days.
Earlier in the day, the Commissionerate police had arrested Rout and Chakraborty. Rout was arrested after he surrendered before city DCP Satyabrata Bhoi.
Pratap Panda, while questioned by reporters in the court, termed the flyover collapse as ‘unfortunate’. Project manager of the company Chakroborty said, “I don’t know. It was a mechanical problem.”
Meanwhile, a city-based lawyer, lalatendu Das, filed a case in the SDJM court here in connection with the flyover collapse incident, in which the Panda Infra owner, two company directors Sujata Panda and Santosh Panda, the Works Department Secretary have been made opposite parties.
On the day, deceased Satyabrata Patnaik’s father Surendra Patnaik said, “I don’t need the money the Government has given as compensation for my son’s death. I will return the money; can they return my son.” He blamed the higher authorities for the incident and said it was criminal negligence on their part to carry out the construction without any steps for people’s safety on the busy Cuttack Road at Bomikhal.