Ghatkopar hoarding collapse: Arshad Khan, alleged business partner of suspended Addl DG’s wife, arrested

Police officials said that Arshad Khan was arrested in Lucknow and brought to the city. He was produced in court and remanded to police custody till January 6

MUMBAI: Over four months after the Esplanade metropolitan magistrate court issued a non-bailable warrant for his arrest, the crime branch on Monday arrested Arshad Khan, the purported business partner of the wife of additional director-general of police Quaiser Khalid, in connection with the Ghatkopar hoarding collapse case.

Accused Arshad Khan

Police officials said that Khan was arrested in Lucknow and brought to the city. He was produced in court and remanded to police custody till January 6.

At least 17 people died and 74 were injured after a 140x120 hoarding in Ghatkopar East, erected by Ego Media, collapsed on May 14 this year during a short spell of rain coupled with gusty winds.

A police officer who was part of the probe said that Khan was hiding at the residence of an employee of a firm where he was the director. “Ever since his pre-arrest bail plea was rejected by the sessions court, he has been continuously changing his location and playing hide-and-seek with the police teams on his trail,” said the officer.

Several police teams had been formed to search for Khan, and a Look-Out Circular had also been issued against him after the sessions court rejected his anticipatory bail plea in August.

Khan’s first statement was recorded in the first week of July before the filing of the charge-sheet. Later, the SIT summoned him twice to record his statement, but he did not turn up. The SIT then approached the Esplanade court and in August, the court issued the non-bailable arrest warrant against him.

Khan’s name came up during the questioning of Ego Media’s former director Janhavi Marathe, who revealed in her police statement that Ego Media had issued several blank cheques to him in 2021 and 2022 after Quaisar Khalid, the then railway police commissioner, gave them the approval to install the hoardings along the Eastern Express Highway at Ghatkopar without calling for tenders.

A police officer said that Khan, who had no ostensible connection with Ego Media or the hoardings business, then convinced a dozen people from Govandi to allow him to use their bank accounts to deposit the cheques, totalling to over ₹55 lakh. The officer said that Khan deposited the amounts in the bank accounts of the unsuspecting people and subsequently withdrew the money.

The SIT team has so far arrested four persons in connection with the hoarding crash. These include Bhavesh Bhinde who owns Ego Media, Manoj Ramkrishna Sanghu, a BMC-approved civil engineer who issued a stability certificate for the hoardings despite knowing that they exceeded permissible limits, former director Janhavi Marathe and Sagar Kumbhar, the contractor who erected the hoardings. The last two were arrested from Goa on June 8.

Ego Media had applied for permission to erect three more hoardings on the same plot in Ghatkopar in 2020. The permission was granted by the GRP, which owned the land, with the size of the hoardings stipulated at 40x40 feet.

In July 2022, Bhinde allegedly approached GRP commissioner Quaiser Khalid to increase the size of the hoardings to 80x80 feet and the length of the tenure from 10 to 30 years. Bhinde also sought permission for a fourth hoarding for which a tender was not issued. Khalid allegedly approved the application in December 2022 before handing over charge to his successor Ravindra Shisve.

The fourth hoarding’s initial size was 120x70 feet but it was increased to 140x120 feet, said another officer. According to the police, Ego Media paid ₹13 lakh rent per month for the three hoardings (measuring 80x80 feet each) and ₹11 lakh per month for the fourth hoarding which collapsed on May 13.