However, the landowners’ relatives have denied receiving the notices, claiming that Sane had received them. While outward numbers were mentioned in municipal records, there was no information on who had actually received the notices, said assistant police inspector Suhas Kamble, who is part of the investigation.

Police said Gonsalves was aware of the building’s condition but failed to act. “If he had taken action and the building was demolished, the people would not have died,” an official said. Former assistant municipal commissioner Subhash Jadhav was also aware the entire building was unauthorised. Although he issued notices to the landowners and contractor, he did not take any legal action or register a case. Despite knowing the building was illegal, officials provided a water connection and collected property taxes between 2009 and 2024.

Both Jadhav and Gonsalves were named as accused in the chargesheet filed last month. They were summoned earlier and their statements were recorded. The police said they found their alleged involvement in the case. A 4,000-page chargesheet was filed in the Vasai magistrate’s court containing several pieces of evidence and statements of 115 people, including residents of the Ramabai Apartment, injured individuals, officials from various departments such as the police and VVCMC, and doctors.

The FIR was registered, based on Gonsalves’s statement in his capacity as municipal commissioner, against eight people, including three landowners and the contractor Nital Sane. The landowners Parshuram Dalvi, his son Sadashiv Dalvi, and his wife, died before the incident. Police arrested five people Sadashiv’s two daughters, their husbands, and Nital Sane. While Sane is still in jail, the four others were granted bail.

Building without an architect, plan

During the investigation, the crime branch found that the landowners had hired the contractor to construct the building without appointing an architect or preparing a proper architectural plan. One-bedroom flats were allegedly converted into two-bedroom units without proper civil engineering advice. Structural reports revealed that the construction quality was poor and the foundation was not properly designed or constructed.

The building was initially constructed between 2008 and 2009 with 54 flats and four shops, and later underwent modifications in 2012. VVCMC officials had not conducted a structural audit. Although Jadhav had found the building to be unauthorised and had issued notices, no legal action was taken.

After a portion of the four-storey building collapsed in Chamundanagar, an FIR was registered under sections 52, 53, and 54 of the Maharashtra Regional and Town Planning Act and section 105 (culpable homicide) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita. Section 56 of the Act was added last month and section 59 of the BNS was added on Thursday.

This is not the first arrest of VVCMC officials in cases relating to illegal constructions. Earlier this year, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) arrested Anil Kumar Khanderao Pawar, IAS, the former Commissioner of VVCMC, and Y. S. Reddy, Deputy Director, Town Planning, VVCMC, under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). The arrests were linked to a money laundering probe in which 41 illegal buildings had been constructed on land reserved for “Sewage Treatment Plant” and “Dumping Ground” as per the approved development plan of Vasai-Virar city.

However, in October, the Bombay High Court declared the arrest of Anilkumar Khanderao Pawar “illegal” in relation to the alleged illegal construction of 41 residential and commercial buildings in the region. The court observed that the agency did not have sufficient material against Pawar at the time of  his arrest.