Ghatkopar hoarding collapse: Crime Branch arrests billboard owner Bhavesh Bhinde

The Mumbai Crime Branch arrested the main accused, Bhavesh Bhinde, the owner of the ad agency that installed the billboard, which collapsed in Ghatkopar East. Bhinde was hiding in a restaurant in Udaipur. The Crime Branch took him into transit remand and is bringing him to Mumbai.

Confirming the development, a senior Crime Branch official told mid-day, "After the tragedy in Ghatkopar, Bhinde went underground. He left Mumbai in his BMW car and reached Pune. Later, he abandoned his car in Pune, and hired a tourist vehicle to reach Ahmedabad and then reached Udaipur, from where we arrested him on Thursday evening."

A total of nine teams of Crime Branch sleuths had been relentlessly working to trace his location. The Crime Branch sleuths were in touch with Bhinde's relatives but they were clueless about his whereabouts. "It was a tough task to trace his location as he had disposed of his cell phone to avoid being traced. But human intelligence and some technical surveillance helped us arrest the accused," said the Crime Branch officer.

Bhinde, who had aspirations to become an MLA owned Ego Media Private Limited, which was earlier known as Guju, an advertising agency. He had received permission to erect a billboard of dimensions 40 x 40 sq ft. But after bribing the corrupt government officials, he erected a billboard whose size was three times the permissible limit.

Bhinde is also involved in multiple cases of cheating and rape but maintained a good and long-standing association with the BMC. Bhinde secured many contracts from the BMC and Indian Railways to install hoardings along the EEH and on Government Railway Police premises. The gigantic illegal billboard, which was 120x120 sq ft, collapsed on a petrol pump on Monday, trapping more than a hundred people.

After the tragedy, a case was registered against Bhinde under Sections 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder), 337 (causing hurt by act endangering life or personal safety of others), 338 (causing grievous hurt by act endangering life or personal safety of others) and 34 (common intention) of the IPC at Pant Nagar police station.