Ghatkopar hoarding collapse: How Mumbai police tracked down ad firm owner Bhavesh Bhinde
Bhinde was caught in Udaipur, where he had checked into a hotel under a false identity. He planned to relocate to another location
Three days after a massive hoarding collapse in Pant Nagar, Ghatkopar East, which claimed 16 lives and injured around 74 others, the Mumbai Police Crime Branch arrested Bhavesh Bhinde, 51, on Thursday evening. Bhinde, the owner of the advertising firm responsible for erecting the allegedly illegal hoarding on leased state government land, was apprehended in Udaipur, where he was staying in a hotel under a false identity.
According to Lakhmi Gautam, Joint Commissioner of Police, Crime Branch, Bhinde had plans to relocate to another location on Friday morning after checking into the hotel on Thursday. The 120x120-foot advertising hoarding set up by Bhinde's company in Pant Nagar collapsed on May 13 following a brief spell of unseasonal rain and strong winds, trapping nearly 100 people underneath it at a busy petrol pump.
The Pant Nagar police registered a case against Bhinde on Monday night under sections 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder), 337 (causing hurt by act endangering life or personal safety of others), 338 (causing grievous hurt by act endangering life or personal safety of others), and 34 (common intention) of the Indian Penal Code. Immediately after the registration of the offence, local police and crime branch teams were formed to locate and apprehend Bhinde, who had already fled the city.
Deputy Commissioner of Police, Datta Nalawade, stated that Bhinde had travelled by road to Lonavala, returned towards Thane until Shil Phata near Mumbra, and then proceeded to Ahmedabad and Udaipur. The crime branch trailed him and eventually apprehended him on Thursday evening at the hotel where he had checked in that morning.
Meanwhile, Director General of Police Rashmi Shukla has initiated an internal inquiry following allegations by BJP leader Kirit Somaiya that then GRP (Government Railway Police) commissioner Quaiser Khalid had approved the proposal for granting Bhinde the contract to erect four massive hoardings on Pant Nagar land, part of which was allotted by the state government to the GRP.
Police officials revealed that Bhinde was previously booked in a rape case in January this year after a woman working in his office levelled allegations against him. The Bombay High Court granted him pre-arrest bail in the rape case after the Mulund police informed the court that they did not intend to arrest him. Additionally, a case of cheating was registered against him in 2016, and he has 21 fines under the Mumbai Municipal Corporation Act, 1888, before 2009. Bhinde had contested the assembly election as an independent candidate from the Mulund constituency in 2009.