Doctor's death: Court seeks replies from govt, civic body

The Bombay High Court on Friday directed the Maharashtra Government and the Brihan Mumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) to file affidavits in response to a PIL that had raised various issues particular manholes vis-a-vis the recent deluge and the death of a Mumbai doctor.

Dr Deepak Amrapurkar (58), a gastroenterologist with the Bombay Hospital, on Tuesday got drifted into a manhole at Prabhadevi-Dadar on Tuesday when Mumbai received 325 mm rainfall in 12 hours. His body was recovered on Thursday morning in the Arabian Sea off the Worli fishermen's colony.

Businessman-activist Viren Shah, the president of Federation of Retail Traders Welfare Association ( FRTWA), filed a PIL, which on Friday was mentioned before a division bench comprising chief justice Manjula Chellur and justice Nitin Jamdar.

"We are also very much pained that such an excellent doctor had to meet such a tragic end. But we cannot become emotional. In a PIL there are certain limitations. Prayers seeking the authorities attention to issues of potholes and manholes can be heard by us in this PIL," chief justice Chellur said.

The matter has been posted on 14 September, by when the replies of the Maharashtra Government and BMC would come.

The FRTWA, which was represented by Sujay Kantawala and Ashish Mehta, pleaded that the police commissioner is asked to register a case of death because of negligence against BMC and other officials.  "Let the relatives of the doctor file a separate plea or complaint before the correct forum for this," she said.

"Mumbaikars will soon have safety standard by installing extra safety iron grill on 30,000 manholes in Mumbai and by making committee preventive measures will be taken in case of manhole policy it's operation and functioning to prevent mishap in future," Shah said after the verdict.

Meanwhile, in a related development, BMC's municipal commissioner Ajoy Mehta had set up a one-member probe panel that would go into the causes of death of Dr Amrapurkar and submit its report within 15 days' time.