Bhavesh Bhinde, the proprietor of Ego Media Pvt Ltd that constructed the hoarding which collapsed in Ghatkopar claiming 17 lives, had obtained the structural stability report of the hoarding from the identical company that he had employed to design and assemble it.
The Mumbai Crime Department on Thursday arrested one Manoj Ramkrishna Sangu, an engineer of Metropolis Engineering Companies (CES), alleging that he had given the structural stability certificates for the hoarding that collapsed in Ghatkopar on Might 13, killing 17 folks and injuring over 70.
Throughout their investigation, the Crime Department discovered that the identical agency had been beforehand employed by Bhinde to design the hoarding.
Bhinde, who was first arrested within the case and is now in judicial custody, together with one other director, Janhvi Marathe, had allegedly given the duty of designing the hoarding construction to Sangu. The design of the hoarding was additionally seized from Bhinde’s home.
In line with the SIT, the federal government railway police commissionerate on October 1, 2020, first floated tender specifying phrases and circumstances which clearly mandated that the scale of the hoarding must be 40×40 and the peak must be 90 toes. “However Sangu breached the sanctioned permission and erected an inferior high quality hoarding, thus violating phrases and circumstances and it resulted within the collapse of the hoarding that killed 17 folks and injured over 80,” stated against the law department supply.
Sangu was produced earlier than the court docket on Friday. SIT officers sought his custody, claiming they wished to know on whose directions Sangu gave the structural stability certificates.
Sangu, together with the administrators of Ego Media Pvt Ltd, might need issued structural stability certificates for over 25 hoardings in Mumbai and the small print must be obtained and probed, the SIT submitted earlier than the court docket. Contemplating the grounds introduced earlier than it, the court docket remanded Sangu, in police custody until June 5.
In line with the SIT, throughout interrogation, Sangu admitted that he designed the 33,800 sq ft BPCL petrol pump hoarding. He, nonetheless, didn’t regulate or examine the development work of the hoarding when it was being constructed in response to his design, and he additionally didn’t see if the construction was being constructed as per requirements. He didn’t duly observe process and allegedly gave a structural stability certificates declaring the hoarding as robust within the certificates issued on April 24, 2023, against the law department supply stated.
Sangu did the work allegedly on the instructions of Bhinde and Marathe; therefore, prima facie, the trio allegedly dedicated the crime in connivance with one another. This prompted the SIT to invoke Part 120-B (felony conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code.
Probe additionally revealed that the administrators of Ego Media Pvt Ltd had put the stated hoarding into operation on February 20, 2023, virtually two months earlier than Sangu gave the structural stability certificates on April 24, 2023.
It was required for Sangu to get the “proof-checking” of the structural design from IIT or VJTI, however probe has revealed that he didn’t do any proof-checking.
The SIT has additionally discovered common funds of a hard and fast quantity within the checking account of Sangu between June 1, 2022 and April 10, 2024. The identical is required to be probed, one other supply stated.
The Crime Department can also be looking for out from which contractor or supervisor Sangu acquired the development and fabrication work for the hoarding performed. After ascertaining their function and culpability it might be additional determined whether or not they can be made accused within the case or witnesses, an officer stated.