Ghatkopar hoarding collapse case: Court refuses bail to Arshad Khan

he sessions court on Wednesday rejected the bail plea of Arshad Khan, who was arrested in connection with the May 14, 2024, Ghatkopar hoarding collapse case, that claimed the lives of 17 people and injured several others.

MUMBAI: The sessions court on Wednesday rejected the bail plea of Arshad Khan, who was arrested in connection with the May 14, 2024, Ghatkopar hoarding collapse case, that claimed the lives of 17 people and injured several others. Khan, who is accused of receiving several blank cheques from Ego Media Pvt Ltd, the firm that had erected the hoarding, is the purported business partner of the wife of suspended additional director-general of police, Quaiser Khalid, whose name has been associated with the case.

Ghatkopar hoarding collapse claimed the lives of 17 people and injured several others. (PTI)

Khan was arrested in Lucknow by the Mumbai police in December 2024, after absconding for more than four months. Following the collapse of the oversized 140 ×120 hoarding in Ghatkopar East, the role of Ego Media and the then railway commissioner who gave approvals for installing the hoarding came into question.

In his bail plea, Khan had submitted that he had no connection with Ego Media or the government agency which gave the permission to erect the hoarding. The plea submitted that he was not a beneficiary of any profits received from the hoarding and was falsely implicated due to political pressure.

Khan also contended that the investigation was baseless as none of the commissioners of police had been named as accused. “The applicant humbly submits that the present case is surrounded by political pressure and media trial attempting to blame the applicant for the alleged offence,” said the bail plea.

In his statement given to the police, Khan had alleged that the money he received from Ego Media was for the purpose of supplying medicines to Bhavesh Bhinde, founder and director of the firm.

Khan’s name came up during the questioning of Jahnavi Marathe, the former director of Ego Media, who revealed that the company had issued several blank cheques to him in 2021 and 2022.

When he was produced in court, the prosecution had submitted that they needed his custody to investigate the cash which was withdrawn by him. The police had claimed that Khan convinced a dozen people from Govandi to allow him to use their bank accounts to deposit the cheques, totalling to over ₹55 lakh. Khan allegedly deposited the amounts in the bank accounts of the unsuspecting people and subsequently withdrew the money.

After hearing the arguments presented by both the sides, sessions judge Sachin Balvant Pawar rejected the bail plea of Khan, the detailed order copy of which is yet to be made available.

Four other arrested accused in the case - Janhavi Marathe, Bhavesh Bhinde, Manoj Sanghu and Sagar Kumbhar - were granted bail by the same court earlier.