Mumbai: Arshad Khan, business partner of suspended IPS officer and additional director general of police Quaiser Khalid’s wife, is alleged to have taken around Rs1 crore from the firm that owned the hoarding that collapsed in Ghatkopar killing 17 people.
The prosecution has made this revelation in a reply filed as against Khan’s anticipatory bail plea. Khan is said to have accepted around Rs 84 lakh in 18 accounts between July 2021 and December 2023. The account holders stated that Khan gave them the cheques to encash.
Khan had approached the sessions court for anticipatory bail last week. The prosecution had submitted its reply opposing the same, wherein it claimed that Khan took a bribe of more than Rs1 crore from the accused Bhavesh Bhide and Jahnvi Marathe Sonalkar, directors of Ego Media Pvt Ltd, to obtain permission for the hoarding.
The agency further said that it had examined bank statements of Ego Media and Gujju Ads Pvt Ltd, which revealed transactions of around Rs84 lakh to 18 accounts between July 2021 and December 2023. The investigation revealed that the money was paid to Khan through cheques.
The agency claimed that the cheques were deposited into the bank accounts of Khan’s relatives. It has also recorded statements of these account holders. Now the agency is probing how Khan utilised these funds and whom all he paid.
Arshad Khan Used To Supply Branded Shoes & Clothes To Bhinde
In his statement, Khan claimed that he supplied branded shoes and clothes to Bhinde. The agency recorded his statement on June 14, but subsequently when his complicity in the crime was revealed, the agency summoned him on July 21. His wife, however, had revealed that Khan had gone for some treatment and was not reachable. After that, Khan, fearing arrest, approached the court for anticipatory bail.
At least 17 people were killed and 74 injured after a huge iron hoarding collapsed on a petrol pump in Ghatkopar on May 13 amid a dust storm. The agency claimed that the hoarding was installed illegally without following criteria of maximum height and size.
