India, July 17 -- Mumbai mayor Ritu Tawde has rejected the civic administration's inquiry report into the Chembur tree collapse that killed 11-year-old Vihaan Srivastava, and ordered a fresh investigation, saying the report appeared to shield officials despite repeated warnings about damage to the tree's roots.

Tawde rejected the report in favour of a third-party audit, on the floor of the house on Thursday.

The mayor's intervention came after leader of the house Ganesh Khankar raised a point of order objecting to the report's findings. Khankar said the administration had imposed only a Rs.5-lakh penalty on the contractor and Rs.2-lakh on the consultant, while effectively giving a clean chit to officials from the roads and garden depart...