MUMBAI: On the day a public works department (PWD) worker was seen fixing the pothole that allegedly killed Bandra biker Jagruti Hogale on the 3.6km Dahanu-Jawhar Road earlier this week, minister Chandrakant Patil said there had been no crater on the stretch in the first place. This, even as a PWD engineer and the road’s contractor both admitted to TOI that the pothole did exist.Locals said that villagers had themselves levelled the “deep pothole” at Veti village in Kasa with mud on Monday. On Tuesday, a PWD worker was assigned the task of further fixing the pothole with cement rubble.In the Vidhan Bhavan complex, on Tuesday again, Patil told mediapersons that the tragedy was unfortunate and added, “The road on which she was riding was waterlogged and had become muddy and slippery. Her motorcycle slipped and she fell. She was hit by a truck that was behind her, killing her instantly. The accident did not take place due to potholes.”Local resident Ashok Bhoir told TOI that the pothole had formed around a month ago and even local bikers had earlier tripped on it. Bhoir said two weeks ago he had called up a PWD engineer to inform him about the pothole.“The PWD should be blamed for Jagruti’s death. Despite informing them about the pothole, nothing was done to fix it,” said Bhoir.When contacted, the engineer, who too uses the road to travel to and from his home, admitted there was a pothole on the culvert but it could not be fixed due to heavy rain. He said the road contractor has been asked to fill the pothole on a regular basis during monsoon.The road, which was constructed in May by Thane-based contractor Vinay Bhardwaj, had developed potholes at a few places. Bhardwaj said the “killer pothole” was filled a few days before the accident but it reopened due to heavy rain. Bhardwaj said the maintenance of the road was PWD’s responsibility. “I followed all quality standards as prescribed by the PWD and there was no compromise on the quality,” said Bhardwaj and added that the pothole may have been caused by heavy rain and it had been recently filled.Bhardwaj said as per his contract, he did not have any defect liability period.The road was constructed at a cost of around Rs 1.2 crore.Bhoir said many among the 2,500 villagers had verbally requested the PWD to fix the pothole that had taken the shape of a crater following heavy rainfall in the area. On Monday, villagers dug out mug from the vicinity and poured it into the pothole. They even warned motorists to be careful of the pothole.Bhoir alleged that the 12mm hume pipe used for the culvert was of poor quality and he had brought it to the the contractor as well as the PWD’s notice. He said he planned to file a police case against the contractor and the PWD for negligence.Meanwhile, truck driver Vinodkumar Yadav who was arrested for the death of Jagruti was released on bail by the Dahanu sessions court on Tuesday.