Illegal hoarding collapse: 6 months on, no chargesheet against govt officials

A senior officer said, “Investigation is not complete and we have recorded statements of the requisite government officials who were linked to the hoarding. The case will be taken to its logical conclusion.”

The police probe had revealed that several rules were flouted by officials in approving the hoarding. Permission to erect the 140 x 120–feet billboard was given in 2022, breaching the permissible limit of 40×40 feet, stipulated by Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC).

Soon after the hoarding collapsed, a civil engineer who had issued a notice to the Government Railway Police (GRP) for erecting the illegal, oversized hoarding at Ghatkopar that collapsed on May 13 but had later withdrawn it, was questioned by the Special Investigation Team (SIT). The hoardings initially had permission for 40X40 feet which was increased to 80X80 feet. However later, the hoarding size was increased upto 140X120 feet.

Soon after the incident, the state government had suspended additional director general of police Quaiser Khalid, the former GRP commissioner. The SIT had also recorded statements of several police personnel who were in Government Railway Police (GRP) when the hoarding was approved.

While the police filed a chargesheet against four civilians, no supplementary chargesheet has been filed even after more than six months of the incident.

The crime branch had filed a 3299 page chargesheet on July 12 against against four persons—Bhavesh Bhinde – head of the company Ego media that operated the hoarding, Ramkrishna Sanghu – a BMC approved civil engineer who had issued a stability certificate for the hoarding knowing fully well that it had exceeded permissible limits, Jahanvi Marathe – former director of Ego Media and Sagar Kumbhar – the contractor who had erected the hoarding.

Marathe was granted bail on November 22, Bhinde was granted bail last month and two others were released in July. Bhinde also filed a discharge application on November 22.

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