With the Thane crime branch police taking into custody two more persons, the total number of persons arrested in connection the seven storey building collapse at Munbra, near Thane, on April 4, 2013 has gone up to 17.
Subhash Waghmare, a suspended clerk of the Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC) and Ramdas Burud, the driver of arrested deputy municipal commissioner Deepak Chavan, are the latest to be arrested in connection with the Mumbra building collapse, in which 74 people were killed and 60-odd others injured.
Waghmare and Barud were reportedly in regular touch with the two arrested builders, who allegedly doled cash from time to time to civic officials to "protect" the illegal seven-storey building at lucky Compound in Shilphata area in Thane and other structures from being demolished by TMC administration.
The name of Waghmare, who had been suspended on January this year after he was caught red-handed receiving a bribe of `30,000 from an errant housing society, was also found in the diary of builder Jameel Shaikh. PNS
Shaikh, who had been greasing the palms of the civic officials to safeguard his Mumbra building from being demolished, has told the police that Barud had also demanded money from him.
Apart from Shaikh and fellow builder Jameel Qureshi, the others who have been arrested so far include: suspended Deputy Municipal Commissioner Deepak Chavan, Assistant Municipal Commissioner (AMC) Babasaheb Andhale, Municipal Corporation clerk Kiran Madke, NCP corporator Hira Patil, assistant police sub-inspector Sayyed, estate agent Jabbar Patel, building material supplier Afroz Alam Ansari, Farukh Abdul, an architect and Rafiq Kamdar, editor of a weekly newspaper in Mumbra.