The Chhattisgarh High Court has rejected the bail plea of three officials of the Bharat Aluminum Company Ltd (Balco) and its contract company who were arrested in connection with the September 23 collapse of an under-construction power plant chimney at Korba town that killed at least 41 workers and left several injured.

A single bench of Justice V P Sharma reserved his order on the bail plea of Balco project manager Viral Mehta, Gunman and Dunkerley Limited (GDCL) Associate General Manager Deepak Narang and site incharge Anup Mahapatra.

The court observed that police had not submitted chargesheet in the matter so far and granting bail was not appropriate given the gravity of the matter.

Balco had described the incident as natural accident. However, police believed that the incident was caused by poor construction and negligence of officials.

Police had earlier arrested GDCL project manager Manoj Sharma, whose bail plea was rejected by both lower court and the High Court.

UNI