MUMBAI: Almost a fortnight after the BMC’s internal inquiry into the Chembur tree crash came under criticism, the civic body on Thursday appointed former Mumbai University vice-chancellor and botanist Prof Sanjay V Deshmukh to head an independent single-member committee to reprobe the incident that claimed the life of an 11-year-old schoolboy Vihaan Srivastava.The committee has been asked to submit its report in a month.The move follows the rejection of the preliminary inquiry conducted by two of BMC’s own officials.Mayor Ritu Tawde and the BMC general body had found the report inadequate.Vihaan’s family said an independent panel doesn’t mean having only one member on it.“We welcome the appointment of an expert, but we remain cautious until accountability is fixed. Our concern is not Dr. Deshmukh’s ability, it is whether this inquiry is even meant to hold the responsible BMC officials accountable. We ask that full record be placed before him and that he be empowered to name those who ignored them,” said Gaurav Srivastav, Vihaan’s father.
