Mumbai: Hours after he was arrested from Udaipur, Bhavesh Bhinde, accused of billboard collapse case in which 16 people died, was produced before a local court. He has been booked for culpable homicide not amounting to murder. The court remanded him to police custody. The investigation of the case has been handed over to the crime branch of Mumbai police.
Bhinde’s advertising firm ‘M/S Ego Media Pvt Ltd’ managed the giant hoarding that collapsed on a petrol pump during a dust storm on May 13. He was absconding after the tragic incident in which 16 people died and 74 were injured.
The crime branch arrested Bhinde from Udaipur on Thursday evening and and brought him to Mumbai. He was produced before additional chief metropolitan magistrate (Esplanade court) K.S. Zanwar and sought his custody for 14 days. The court granted his custody for 10 days till May 26.
The illegal 125 feet x 125 feet hoarding stood on a piece of land in possession of the government railway police (GRP). BJP leader Kirit Somaiya claimed that the Government Railway Police (GRP) had granted permission in 2021 for four more “illegal” hoardings in Mumbai to Bhinde’s advertising firm. He said these hoardings have been installed at the Railway Police Colony near Tilak Bridge, Dadar.
“Four more hoardings illegal permission was given by GRP Railway Police of Maharashtra Govt to Bhavesh Bhinde EGO Media in 2021 (sic),” Somaiya said in a post on X.
