Toll rises to 14, FIR filed against billboard owner and others

Mumbai: A day after the collapse of an illegal hoarding claimed 14 lives in Ghatkopar, the Mumbai civic body on Tuesday said it would take action against all hoardings erected without its permission.

A case has been registered against Bhavesh Bhinde, the owner of M/s Ego Media Private Limited and others for culpable homicide not amounting to murder and other relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code at Pant Nagar police station.

It has also come to light that Bhinde was booked in a rape case by the Mumbai police in January this year.

Bhinde had also contested as an Independent candidate in the 2009 Maharashtra Assembly elections. He had then declared 21 instances where he was fined under the Mumbai Municipal Corporation (MMC) Act for putting up banners without permission and two offences related to the Negotiable Instruments Act that usually pertain to cheque bouncing.

Sources said Bhinde had bagged several contracts from the Indian Railways and the Mumbai civic body, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), for erecting hoardings and banners over the years and has violated the rules of both organisations several times. He and others in his company are also named as accused in tree-poisoning and tree-cutting cases.

Meanwhile, an official said that no action was taken in the past against the giant hoarding that crashed on a petrol pump as a dispute was going on between the BMC and Government Railway Police (GRP).

Municipal Commissioner Bhushan Gagrani after visiting the site said that the drive will start with the removal of the remaining three hoardings on the GRP land in Ghatkopar.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde also gave directives in this regard to the civic body, Gagrani added. The BMC does not have an elected body at present as civic elections are pending for more than two years.

Reiterating that the BMC had not given any permission for the hoarding that collapsed on Monday, Gagrani said it had been conducting correspondence (with the owner and concerned agencies) regarding it for the last two years, and also lodged a police complaint for the poisoning of trees on its periphery.

“A stand was taken that we (GRP) do not need permission (for a hoarding on railway land) under the Railway Act. The BMC’s response was that it was not legally correct. And hence, in the whole episode, so far there was no action,” the commissioner claimed.

An assistant police commissioner (admin) had given permission for the four hoardings on the GRP land (including the one that collapsed) on behalf of the commissioner of railway police, Mumbai, but no permission had been obtained from the BMC, a civic official had claimed earlier.

Mumbai Police Commissioner Vivek Phansalkar assured strict action against those responsible for the incident, while the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) said it will take down the remaining billboards on the GRP land where the hoarding collapsed.

So far, 89 persons were pulled out from under the collapsed hoarding, of whom 14 were declared dead, officials said. With agency inputs