The Mumbai Police on Thursday filed a chargesheet in connection with the collapse of a foot overbridge in the city in March, claiming that guidelines of the Indian Roads Congress were not followed during an audit of the structure, PTI reported.

Seven people were killed and over 30 injured when the foot overbridge connecting the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus with the Azad Maidan police station collapsed on March 14.

Neeraj Kumar Desai, whose company had conducted the audit between 2016 and 2017, is an accused in the case. The company’s audit report had said the foot overbridge was in a “good condition”. Desai is in judicial custody for offences under Sections 304(2) (culpable homicide not amounting to murder), 337 (endangering life and safety) and 338 (causing grievous hurt) of the Indian Penal Code.

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Two officials of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation and a retired engineer were also arrested.

The 709-page chargesheet has statements of 85 witnesses. It said that the base of the bridge was not audited, and the non-destructive test was conducted at 16 spots but not in the portion that collapsed. The chargesheet blamed the lack of coordination between Desai and the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s bridges department, Mumbai Mirror reported.

“Neither did Desai ask for repair documents, maps, or other documents, required for the inventory structural audit of the bridge, nor did the BMC’s bridges department hand it over to him, resulting in a faulty structural audit,” the chargesheet said, quoting Sanjay Darade, the civic body’s chief engineer.

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Darade also said the civic body officials had acted against rules that executive and assistant engineers must inspect smaller bridges at least once a year and bigger bridges twice a year.

Desai’s lawyer said his client was being made a scapegoat.