Ghatkopar hoarding collapse: Accused in hoarding crash case named in 23 criminal cases; was arrested on rape charges

Bhavesh Bhinde

Bhavesh Bhinde, the owner of the advertising agency which had allegedly put up the hoarding that crashed on a petrol pump in Ghatkopar area, has 23 criminal cases registered against him and was recently arrested on rape charges, police said on Tuesday evening, reported news agency PTI.

After Monday's hoarding crash in which at least 14 people died, he has been absconding, while a case under IPC section 304 (causing death by negligence) was registered against him at Pantnagar police station in the city, reported PTI.

In January, Bhinde was arrested in a rape case registered with Mulund police station, but later secured bail, a police official said. Bhinde, owner of Ego Media, had also contested the Maharashtra assembly elections in 2009, he added, reported PTI.

According to BJP leader Kirit Somaiya, another firm of Bhinde's had been blacklisted by the commercial department of the Indian Railways in 2017-18 after several complaints of installing illegal hoardings were filed against it, reported PTI.

Meanwhile, two more bodies have been located under the debris at the site of a giant hoarding collapse in Mumbai as the search and rescue operation continued more than 40 hours after the incident, officials said on Wednesday.

The bodies were spotted last night at the hoarding crash site in Ghatkopar, but were yet to be pulled out, they said.

The illegal hoarding that stood on a piece of land in possession of the Government Railway Police (GRP) crashed on a petrol pump in Chheda Nagar area on Monday evening when the city was hit by dust storms and unseasonal rains.

Rescue teams had earlier extricated 89 persons from under the collapsed hoarding, of whom 14 were declared dead while the other 75 were injured, as per officials.

National Disaster Response Force's (NDRF) Assistant Commandant Nikhil Mudholkar told PTI on Wednesday, "We have spotted two bodies stuck under the third girder (of the collapsed hoarding) but we are facing difficulties in reaching the spot. One needs to crawl to reach there."

"We have removed the first girder after cutting it overnight and are now removing the debris with the help of earthmovers and excavators," he said.

The NDRF personnel will now cut the second girder and there are more than five such girders (at the crash site), he said.

After removing the girders it will be known how many people are still trapped, the official said.

On Wednesday morning, a small fire broke out at the incident site during the search and rescue operation, but it was immediately doused by the fire tenders deployed there, an NDRF official said.

(With inputs from PTI)