MUMBAI, Nov. 10 -- The floor plan and blueprint of the four-storeyed Ramabai Apartment in Virar, which collapsed on August 26, killing 17 people, was constructed by its landowner without taking any technical advice or hiring an architect. The landowner had employed a labour contractor and used substandard construction material which led to the collapse of the building, according to the charge sheet filed by the Mira-Bhayander-Vasai-Virar (MBVV) police's crime branch. The 4,015-page charge sheet was submitted in the Vasai magistrate's court on Thursday. After the building's collapse, the police had registered a case against the contractor Nital Sane and the land owner Parshuram Dalvi, who had passed away by then. Sane was found guilty and a case was registered against him. He is currently in jail. As per the charge sheet, which has the statements of 115 people, including a few experts, Sane revealed that he and Dalvi had not employed an architect and converted already constructed 1-BHK flats into 2-BHKs without any expert advice before selling them to buyers. To establish that the building plan was drawn up by an amateur, the crime branch asked the PWD department to draw the final plan of the collapsed building based on the revelation of Sane who gave them the floor plan. "The structure was 12 years old but after examining the plan, we found that it was not even strong enough to stand for two years," said a PWD officer. "We have asked the police to hire a structural engineer and a design engineer to record the exact faults in the structure. In our opinion, the foundation dimension and scale design were not consistent with the structure's height," said the PWD officer. "Moreover, there was just a three-metre gap between foundations of the two buildings, resulting in uneven settlement, due to which one entire part of the building collapsed." Officers said the building was constructed in 2012 but a structural audit was done by the Vasai-Virar City Municipal Corporation (VVCMC) only in 2018. The then assistant commissioner Subhash Jadhav had found the building to be unauthorised but had only issued a notice to Dalvi and Sane without registering an FIR. In 2025, current assistant commissioner Gilson Gonsalves also conducted an audit but did not take action either. "He issued a repair notice without demolishing the building when it was dangerous. Therefore, the names of both Gonsalves and Jadhav have been added to the charge sheet," said an officer. Both the officers, citing health reasons, did not turn up to record their statements on Saturday. The police recorded the statements of former executive engineer Rajendra Lad and deputy engineer Eknath Thackeray, who were asked why a water connection was provided and house tax imposed on an unauthorised building. "Both said that the municipal corporation had earlier decided to provide water connections to unauthorised constructions and impose house tax," said the officer. While VVCMC authorities said both Gonsalves and Jadhav had failed to follow due procedure since the building was categorised as C2B (dilapidated but habitable) in February 2025, a VVCMC officer claimed that by sending notices, both had acted legally according to the Maharashtra Municipal Corporation Act, 1949. "The builder and owner of the plot were supposed to carry out repairs but due to an internal dispute between the builder and the residents, this was not done," he said. "The residents were given notice to evict but they refused outright. There are more than 300 FIRs registered by us against various builders in Vasai-Virar based on structural audits. However, we have to wait for a court order to evict or demolish." The crime branch officer said they had written to the Enforcement Directorate and the income-tax department to scrutinise the financial records of both officials, after which a supplementary chargesheet will be submitted against Gonsalves, Jadhav and other officials involved. "There will be more names added to the supplementary charge sheet." "The residents kept insisting on repairs but Sane ignored them," Anil Jovil, who lost three members of his family in the crash, said. "The VVCMC officials are equally responsible for the deaths of my son, daughter-in-law and one-year-old granddaughter as they turned a blind eye to the illegal construction and then did not even make sure that it was repaired." "We will now request the CM to consider the rights of the residents of Ramabai Apartment in case of cluster development at the same spot in future," said social activist Dinesh Kamble who has been fighting for the rights of the injured and families of the deceased....