Bhubaneswar, Jan 24: A partner of a private firm that had got the contract to operate and maintain a lakefront near Vadodara in Gujarat where 12 school students and two teachers died in a boat capsize was apprehended from Odisha on Wednesday, police said.

So far, seven of the 19 people named in the FIR are already behind bars, the police added.

According to police sources, accused Gopal Shah, a partner in Kotia Projects that was responsible for running and maintaining the Motnath Lake in the Harni area on the outskirts of Vadodara, was apprehended from Titilagarh in Odisha's Balangir district.

As many as 12 students and two teachers of New Sunrise School on a picnic drowned, while 18 students and two teachers were rescued after an overloaded boat capsized in the Motnath Lake on January 18. The students were on a picnic at the time.

Later, the police registered a case under sections 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) and 308 (attempt to commit culpable homicide) of the Indian Penal Code against 19 persons in connection with the boat tragedy.

Kotia Projects had allegedly sub-let the contract for boating activities to Dolphin Entertainment, which had no prior experience.

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Seven persons, including four partners of Kotia Projects – Bhimsingh Yadav, Vedprakash Yadav, Rashmikant Prajapati and Bineet Kotia, manager of the firm Shantilal Solanki, and boat operators – Nayan Gohil and Ankit Vasava – are already in custody in connection with the case, the sources said.

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