Ghatkopar hoarding collapse: Court grants bail to main accused Bhinde
Of the four accused, the court has so far granted bail to a structural engineer and contractor.
3 min read
The police had opposed bail to Bhinde stating that he is the main culprit and was behind the planning to increase the hoarding’s size beyond permissible limits for profits. (File/Express Photo)Five months after the Ghatkopar hoarding collapse, a sessions court on Saturday granted bail to the main accused. Bhavesh Bhinde, the owner of Ego Media Pvt Ltd, which installed the hoarding which collapsed causing the death of 17 persons and injuring 80, was granted bail by the court. Bhinde was arrested by the Mumbai police on May 17 and charged with sections including culpable homicide not amounting to murder and grievous hurt of the IPC.
The detailed order of the court granting bail to Bhinde is yet to be made available. Of the four accused, the court has so far granted bail to a structural engineer and contractor. It had rejected the bail plea of Janhavi Marathe, a former director of Ego Media, in August. Her bail plea is pending in the Bombay High Court. It had also rejected the anticipatory bail plea of Arshad Khan, a wanted accused. A non-bailable warrant was issued against Khan but he is yet to be arrested.
The police had opposed bail to Bhinde stating that he is the main culprit and was behind the planning to increase the hoarding’s size beyond permissible limits for profits. The police had claimed that Bhinde was the main conspirator involved in falsely portraying that the land on which the hoarding was installed belonged to Indian Railways, to circumvent BMC policies that would have restricted the hoarding’s dimensions. The police had also claimed that there was connivance of Bhinde with officials of the Government Railway Police (GRP) and Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC).
Bhinde in his bail plea had said that the unfortunate incident was purely an ‘act of God’ as there were unexpected and unprecedented winds on the day of the incident on May 13, which caused the legally built hoarding to collapse. He also claimed that he was falsely implicated due to ‘political vendetta’ and made a scapegoat due to the Lok Sabha elections in May. Lawyer Sana Raees Khan representing Bhinde also submitted that he was not a director of the company at the time of the construction of the hoarding and that they had valid permissions, including from the Commissionerate of the GRP. The lawyer had also submitted that there were no statements to show any criminal nexus of Bhinde with any of the GRP officials, or any bank transactions to show money was paid for grant of permissions to increase the size of the hoarding.
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