Despite crucial warnings about the hazard of the Ghatkopar’s illegal hoarding, the arrested accused - owner Bhavesh Bhinde and former director Janhavi Marathe of Ego Media private limited - allegedly went ahead with installing it by ignoring the safety parameters, states the 3,299-page chargesheet filed by the Mumbai Police’s Crime Branch that has been submitted to the court.
According to police sources in the Special Investigation Team (SIT) formed by the Crime Branch to investigate the hoarding collapse case, the chargesheet consists of “full proof” matter against the arrested accused and authorities from the Government Railway Police (GRP) and the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) who altogether helped the primary accused to successfully install the illegal hoarding which ended up killing 17 people, injuring 80 others on May 13.
The land where the hoarding stood ground belonged to GRP, hence the approval of it’s installation lay on the hands of GRP after the NOC by the BMC who looks after hoardings in the city. As per the officials, the chargesheet has highlighted an extensive line up of the chain of events that took place before the hoarding finally collapsed. “There was no legal tendering process that took place from the GRP’s end - which was supposed to be done by the then GRP commissioner IPS Quaiser Khalid. He approved without any NOC or safety check. Secondly, BMC’s license department - the inspector Sunil Dalvi who, without any structural audit and stability certificate gave a nod for approval. Their roles have been established in the chargesheet,” an official said.
Dalvi’s role doesn’t end there. “Dalvi, during an inspection noted that the hoarding’s size was not as par with the safety requirement,” the officer said. The hoarding was supposed to be 40x40 feet as per BMC’s norms, but it was beyond 120x120 feet. “Seeing this, Dalvi issued a notice to Ego Media about the same, which he himself withdrew the very next day. His contact with the owner (Bhinde) was a matter to be considered here,” he added.
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Another crucial illegality noted in the chargesheet is yet another warning from an excavator operator who noticed the quality of the soil on which the hoarding was about to be installed. On such soil, the soft soil needs additional check and approval which was completely brushed off, rather ignored followed by installing the hoarding or billboard.
The Veermata Jijabai Technological Institute (VJTI) conducted a structural audit to find out the cause of hoarding collapse - which has been added to the chargesheet. It said that the structure had a weak foundation and flaws in the design. Moreover, the hoarding’s capacity to withstand wind speeds was much lesser than the estimated requirement.
