The Indore district and sessions court Thursday acquitted two people associated with the trust of an illegally constructed temple over lack of evidence, two years after 36 devotees died when the stepwell of the structure collapsed.
Sewaram Galani, president of the Shri Baleshwar Mahadev Jhulelal Temple Trust which manages the temple in Indore, and secretary Murli Kumar Sabnani were acquitted after the court found lapses on the part of the police to prove their involvement in the incident from March 2023, defence lawyer Raghavendra Singh Bais said.
On March 30, 2023, a temple built over an old, closed stepwell at Shri Baleshwar Mahadev Jhulelal Temple in Sarvoday Nagar, Indore, collapsed during a religious gathering for Ramnavmi, causing 54 people to fall into the stepwell. Of them, 36 died, and others were injured.
“Judge Jitendra Singh Kushwaha ruled that the police could not prove the charges of ‘culpable homicide, not amounting to murder’ levelled against both the accused,” defence lawyer Raghavendra Singh Bais said.
According to the prosecution, the applicants, Galani and Sabnani of the temple trust, organised the event despite knowing the stepwell’s base needed repairs.
Around 11:40 am, as many devotees participated in a ‘hawan’, the base gave way. After an inquiry, an FIR was filed against the applicants on March 31, 2023, at Juni Police Station, Indore.
The prosecution had argued that the applicants were “aware that the temple was in dilapidated condition, because of which it is being restored, despite that, applicants permitted people to gather for participating in Hawan,” Bains said.
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On the other hand, Bains argued that on April 23, 2022, the Building Officer, Zone-18, sent a notice, and the temple management responded on April 25, 2022, clearly stating that the temple and stepwell were in poor condition and needed restoration. Despite multiple requests to the Indore Municipal Corporation, no action was taken by the authorities, he argued.
Bains told The Indian Express the judge found there “was a lack of evidence in the case and some witnesses turned hostile”.
Galani and Sabnani were cleared of the charges under sections 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), and 325 (voluntarily causing grievous hurt) of the Indian Penal Code.
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