Morbi bridge tragedy: Gujarat HC rejects demand to transfer case to CBI

The Gujarat High Court has refused to hand over the investigation into the 2022 Morbi bridge collapse tragedy to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) as sought by the kin of the victims. The court can not look into the correctness of the ongoing investigation, said a division bench of Chief Justice Sunita Agarwal and Justice Pranav Trivedi. The court was hearing a suo motu public interest litigation (PIL) initiated after the October 30, 2022, incident at Morbi in Gujarat in which 135 persons lost their lives when a British-era suspension bridge on the Machchhu river collapsed. Some of the victims and kin of the deceased sought reinvestigation of the entire case through the CBI, accusing Gujarat Police of not carrying out a proper investigation and not making any civic official accused despite a Special Investigation Team holding some of them responsible. In a separate application submitted last month seeking a CBI probe, the victims argued that the then district collector was