Accused failed to account for ₹84-lakh payment from Bhinde: Police

Arshad Khan, arrested in the Ghatkopar hoarding collapse case, failed to prove receiving ₹84 lakh from Ego Media, with no evidence linking others to the funds.

MUMBAI: Arshad Khan, who was arrested in connection with the Ghatkopar hoarding collapse incident in May 2024, has failed to substantiate his claim of having received ₹84 lakh from Ego Media Pvt Ltd towards supply of medicines to the firm’s director and the main accused in the case, Bhavesh Bhinde.

At least 17 people died in the hoarding collapse incident in Ghatkopar East on May 14, 2024, while another 74 were injured (PTI)

Mumbai police’s crime branch, which is investigating the incident, has filed a 600-page supplementary chargesheet against Khan, purported business partner of suspended additional director general of police Qaiser Khalid’s wife. The charge sheet notes that while police have not found any trail linking Khalid with the money, Khan had also not been able to legally justify or submit any authentic documents to account for the ₹84 lakh payment from Ego Media.

At least 17 people died in the hoarding collapse incident in Ghatkopar East on May 14, 2024, while another 74 were injured. The hoarding in question, owned by Ego Media, was nearly three times the maximum permissible size of hoardings and it was erected on railway land after Khalid, then railway police commissioner, gave his approval, police found during the probe.

Khan’s name came up while the police was questioning Ego Media’s former director Janhavi Marathe. In her police statement, Marathe said Ego Media had issued several blank cheques to Khan in 2021 and 2022 after Khalid approved its hoardings along the Eastern Express Highway without calling for tenders.

According to officers familiar with the probe, Khan used the bank accounts of his wife, brother in-law, nephew and neighbours to encash cheques worth ₹84 lakh from Ego Media. Apart from family members, he convinced a dozen people from Govandi, where he lived, to allow him to deposit some cheques and withdraw the money in lieu of a commission.

Khan was arrested from Lucknow in December last year after being on the run for seven months. “During interrogation, he could not justify the receipt of ₹84 lakh, which is mentioned in the charge sheet,” said a senior officer.

The charge sheet includes statements of 20 witnesses and about seven others, recorded before a magistrate under 164 of the Criminal Procedure Code.