Ghatkopar Hoarding Collapse: BMC Engineer Under SIT Scrutiny for Withdrawing Notice

The billboard that collapsed in Ghatkopar, which took the lives of 17 people, is under the microscope of the Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the Mumbai police's crime division and they are now scrutinising the civic engineer Sunil Dalvi. He had initially warned the Government Railway Police (GRP) about the unlawful, oversized hoarding but later withdrew his warning.

Dalvi served in the N-ward of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) from November 2021 to April 2024. It is alleged that he had regular interactions with Bhavesh Bhinde, the owner of Ego Media Pvt. Ltd, who had placed the hoarding.

The police are investigating Dalvi's call data records and WhatsApp conversations with Bhinde over the past year to find their role in the case.

Two suspects have been apprehended by the SIT so far. One is Bhinde of Ego Media, and the other is Manoj Ramkrishna Sanghu, a BMC-recognised engineer. Sanghu will be in police custody until June 5, and Bhinde is in judicial custody. Sanghu is accused of issuing a stability certificate for the hoarding on April 24, 2023, despite knowing that it exceeded the maximum size permitted by the BMC. 

Janhavi Marathe, who served as the director of Ego Media until November 2023, is the third suspect in the case. However, her location is not known. After Bhinde's arrest, a police team visited her residence for an investigation but found it empty. Her anticipatory bail application was rejected by the session court.

Ego Media had sought permission for three more billboards on the same Ghatkopar property in 2020. The GRP, the owner of the land, granted the permission with the condition that the hoardings should not exceed 40 by 40 feet in size. 

But Bhinde requested GRP commissioner Quaiser Khalid in July 2022 to increase the hoarding size to 80 by 80 feet and extend the tenure from 10 to 30 years. He also sought approval for a fourth billboard. But no tender was issued for the fourth one.

Despite these irregularities, Khalid is said to have approved the application in December 2022 and then handed over the responsibility to his successor, Ravindra Shisve. 

The fourth hoarding, which was initially 120 by 70 feet, was later expanded to 140 by 120 feet. The police allege that Ego Media was leasing out the three 80-by-80-foot hoardings for INR 13 lakh per month and the fourth hoarding, which collapsed on May 13, for INR 11 lakh a month. The investigation continues.