Mumbai Ghatkopar Hoarding Collapse: Another BMC Official Summoned By Crime Branch For Questioning

Mumbai: Sunil Dalvi, senior inspector from the License Department of the ‘N’ ward – Ghatkopar, was summoned by the Mumbai Police’s Crime Branch on Monday, for questioning in the Ghatkopar hoarding collapse incident.

According to police sources, Dalvi was placed in the ‘N’ ward from 2022 to April 2024, when the collapsed hoarding – owned by the primary accused Bhavesh Bhinde’s EGO Media Private Limited – got approval from the Government Railway Police (GRP). After GRP’s alleged unlawful approval for the hoarding, Dalvi, who was in the licensing department, sent a notice to GRP asking on what basis the hoarding was approved since it didn’t comply with the rules and regulations under the Disaster Management Act of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC).

However, within 7 days of sending the notice, Dalvi withdrew the notice to the GRP, which has now put him in trouble. “If he sent the notice in the first place, it means he or his department must have found some irregularities in the hoarding or the approval procedure.

Secondly, he withdrew it which meant that either he did it by himself or was told to – by any of his superiors. We want to know why the notice was sent and why it was withdrawn, and the questioning is for the same,” said a police source on Monday evening, adding that Dalvi was in touch with Bhinde.

Dalvi was called to the Crime Branch for questioning at 2 pm, and it continued till late at night on Monday. Along with Dalvi, Crime Branch’s latest arrest Manoj Ramkrishna Sangu, an engineer approved by the BMC, who allegedly provided the structural stability certificate for the hoarding that collapsed, is being interrogated subsequently.

Sangu was arrested on May 31 and has been remanded to police custody till June 5. He is the second arrest after Bhavesh Bhinde – who was arrested on May 16, currently in judicial custody. The Ghatkopar hoarding collapse killed 17 people, injuring 100s of people on May 13.