Ghatkopar hoarding collapse case: NBW issued against Arshad Khan

Mumbai court issues non-bailable warrant for Arshad Khan in Ghatkopar hoarding collapse case, which killed 17. Police have launched a manhunt and issued a Look-Out Circular.

MUMBAI: The Esplanade metropolitan magistrate court on Thursday issued a non-bailable warrant (NBW) against Arshad Khan, the purported business partner of the wife of suspended additional-director general of police, Quaiser Khalid. The arrest warrant was issued in connection with the May 13 Ghatkopar hoarding collapse case in which 17 people died and 74 were injured.

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Several police teams have been formed to search for Khan, and a Look-Out Circular (LOC) was issued against him after the sessions court on Tuesday rejected Khan’s anticipatory bail plea. The Special Investigation Team (SIT) has already filed a first chargesheet against four persons, including Bhavesh Bhinde, the owner of Ego Media Pvt Ltd, the ad agency that installed the hoarding.

Khan’s first statement was recorded in the first week of July before the filing of the chargesheet. The SIT summoned him twice subsequently to record his second statement but he did not turn up. Last week, it approached the Esplanade court, and on Thursday the court issued the NBW against Khan. “If he still does not appear before the SIT and cooperate in the investigation, we will start legal proceedings to attach his property under Sections 82 and 83 of the CrPC,” said a police officer.

Another police officer said that Khan’s mobile phone had been switched off and the police were unable to trace him. “Khan’s name came up during the questioning of Ego Media’s former director Janhavi Marathe, who revealed in her statement that Ego Media had issued several blank cheques to him in 2021 and 2022 when Quaisar Khalid gave him the approval to install hoardings along the Eastern Express Highway at Ghatkopar without calling for tenders,” said the official.

Khan, who has no ostensible connection with Ego Media or the hoarding business, then convinced a dozen people in Govandi to allow him to use their bank accounts to deposit cheques of over ₹55 lakh, which he would withdraw from time to time. “Khan’s statement is important, as he allegedly took this money from Ego Media, the company that erected the killer 140X120-foot hoarding,” added the official.

The SIT team has so far arrested four persons in connection with the crash. Two of these are Bhavesh Bhinde who owns Ego Media and Manoj Ramkrishna Sanghu, a BMC-approved civil engineer who issued a stability certificate for the hoarding despite knowing that it exceeded permissible limits. The other two, Jahanvi Marathe and Sagar Kumbhar, the contractor who erected the hoarding, were arrested from Goa on June 8.

Ego Media had applied for permission to erect three other hoardings on the Ghatkopar plot in 2020. The permission was granted by the Government Railway Police (GRP), which owns 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. He 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 was increased to 140x120 feet, said another officer. According to the police, Ego Media paid a monthly rent of ₹13 lakh for each of the three hoardings (measuring 80x80 feet each) and ₹11 lakh per month for the fourth hoarding, which collapsed on May 13.