Deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, who is in charge of the home portfolio, is under increasing pressure to suspend IPS officer Qaiser Khalid of the 1997 for his alleged role in the Ghatkopar hoarding scam. A former M.P. of the BJP has already written to Fadnavis to suspend Khalid. Other senior leaders too are reported to have expressed the opinion that the officer should be suspended in view of the fact that the Special Investigation Team (SIT), which is probing the May 13 collapse of a hoarding erected by Ego Media on a BPCL petrol pump at Eastern Express Highway, Ghatkopar (east) in which 17 people were crushed to death, has unearthed documentary evidence of financial dealings between Khalid's wife Summanna's company and Ego Media.
Summana and one Mohd Arshad Khan are directors of a company Mahpara Garments. A search of the company's online details by the FPJ confirmed that Summana and Khan are indeed directors of the company which was incorporated on June 28, 2022 by the registrar of companies with a paid up capital of one lakh rupees.
When FPJ contacted Khalid on Sunday, he replied: "You should contact the director. I am not associated with this." He, however, declined to share his wife's mobile number. Incidentally, Khalid hails from a business family dealing in dry fruits in Srinagar.
The SIT has found out that Bhavesh Bhinde of Ego Media Pvt Ltd had transferred Rs 46 lakhs to the Govandi-based Mahpara Garments in FY 2022-23. It is not clear what business Mahpara did with Ego Media that the latter had to transfer such a large sum to it. Khalid was the railway police commissioner when permission was granted to Ego Media for the killer hoarding and other hoardings at Ghatkopar and Dadar on railway land.
So far only five persons have been arrested in connection with the tragedy. The BMC's `N' ward's assistant commissioner Sunil Dalvi, who was in regular touch with Bhinde, is yet to be prejudiced against him by the police. The killer hoarding was situated in the jurisdiction of `N' ward whose office is opposite the railway station in Ghatkopar (east).
Noted RTI activist Anil Galgali said when he submitted RTI applications to both the BMC and the railway police asking what action was taken against their officials who had approved the killer hoardings, he received no response. In fact, both the authorities claimed that the records (of sanction for the hoarding) were not available.
Meanwhile, several large hoardings above the stipulated size of 40'x40' continue to pose a threat to citizens in different parts of the metropolis. In the case of hoarding on railway land, the railway board has told the Supreme Court that it will take responsibility for the hoardings on railway land this monsoon. The structural stability certificates of hoardings on railway land are submitted by the hoarding contractors while activists have demanded that the railways should on their own check the structural stability of these hoardings instead of depending on the contractors.
