The Mumbai Police’s Crime Branch filed a 3,299-page chargesheet in the Ghatkopar illegal hoarding collapse case which killed over 17 and injured 100 plus individuals during the incident that took place on May 13.
According to senior police officials, the charge sheet includes witness statements of 102 people which two officers from the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) and the Railway Police, Government Railway Police (GRP) statements of six personnel have been added as key witness statements. Along with this, individuals who witnessed the collapse, the workers nearby who witnessed the construction activities, etc, have been added as key witnesses, the police said.
Police even recorded the statements of the family and relatives of the 17 people who were killed which has been made into the chargesheet, along with the survivors of the hoarding collapse incident.
As of now, the Crime Branch has arrested several individuals allegedly involved in the crash of the hoarding and including the owner of the hoarding - Bhavesh Bhinde. Bhinde’s former employees who were present as decision makers in the company when they received the contract for the hoarding - Janhavi Marathe and Sagar Patil along with the structural engineer Manoj Sandhu, who issued stability certificates without inspection - were arrested by the police. All four are in judicial custody for serious criminal offences.
BMC engineer Sunil Dalvi, who was posted at the ‘N’ ward was questioned by the crime branch but he was not arrested.
Weeks after the crash, the Veermata Jijabai Technological Institute (VJTI) inspected the cause of the collapse and found that the structure had a weak foundation and inadequacies in the design. It said that the strong winds along with dust storms and heavy rains on May 13 were three times lower than the hoarding’s capacity. The structure could withstand wind speeds of only 49.7 kmph while it should have had at least 158.4 kmph. On the day of the collapse, the wind speed had touched 87 kmph. Furthermore, the crime branch revealed that the size of hoarding in the city should not go beyond 40x40 feet, while the one that collapsed was 120x120 feet, making it immediately illegal.
