IPS officer Quaiser Khalid suspended over Ghatkopar hoarding collapse for lapses

Mumbai: Six weeks after an illegally-erected outsized hoarding crashed on a petrol pump at Ghatkopar killing 17 persons and injuring 74, Maharashtra government suspended additional director general of police Quaiser Khalid who was commissioner, Government Railway Police, when permission was given to erect the billboard.

Khalid’s suspension follows two adverse reports by the state director general of police Rashmi Shukla and DG, GRP, Dr Pradnya Sarvade. The two reports blamed him for sanctioning the hoardings and petrol pump despite objections from Maharashtra State Police Housing and Welfare Corporation.

The police investigation into the crash also revealed that the business partner of Khalid’s wife Summana received at least ₹55 lakh from Ego Media Private Limited which erected the hoarding in violation of the BMC norms. This business partner allegedly used the accounts of a dozen people to deposit the ₹55 lakh, and which he later withdrew. On Tuesday, an investigating officer told HT that they have recorded the statement of Govandi resident Mohd. Arshad Khan who is Quaisar Khalid’s wife Summana’s business partner in a company called Mahpara Garments which specialises in chikankari work.

Khan’s name came up during the questioning of Ego Media’s former director Jahanvi Marathe who revealed in her statement that Ego Media had issued several blank cheques to Arshad Khan in 2021 and 2022 when Quaisar Khalid gave them the approval to install the hoardings along the Eastern Express Highway at Ghatkopar without calling for tenders, said the investigating officer. Khan who has no ostensible connection with Ego Media or the hoarding business, then convinced a dozen people in Govandi to allow him to use their bank accounts to deposit cheques which amounted to a total of ₹55 lakh and which he subsequently withdrew over time. Investigators say they have information that more money changed hand later and that they are looking for a second chain of transactions.

The SIT team has so far arrested four persons in connection with the crash. These are, Bhavesh Bhinde who owns Ego Media, Manoj Ramkrishna Sanghu, a BMC-approved civil engineer who had issued a stability certificate for the 140 feet x 120 feet hoardings well knowing that it exceeded permissible limits. The other two, former director in the company Jahanvi Marathe and Sagar Kumbhar, the contractor who erected the hoarding, were arrested from Goa on June 8. All four are at present in judicial custody.

During their investigation the police found that Marathe did not draft any agreement while awarding the contract to Kumbhare to erect the hoarding but her company paid him a total around ₹one crore for constructing the foundation and the piling work for all the four hoardings erected by Ego Media at Ghatkopar.

Ego Media had applied for permission to erect three more hoardings on the same plot in Ghatkopar in 2020. The permission was granted by the GRP, which owns the land, with the size of the hoardings stipulated at 40x40 feet. In July 2022, Bhinde allegedly approached GRP commissioner Quaiser Khalid to increase the size of the hoardings to 80x80 feet and the length of the tenure from 10 to 30 years. Bhinde also sought permission for a fourth hoarding for which a tender was not issued. Khalid allegedly approved the application in December 2022 before handing over the charge to his successor, Ravindra Shisve.

The fourth hoarding’s initial size was 120x70 feet but it was increased to 140x120 feet, said another officer. According to the police, Ego Media paid ₹13 lakh rent per month for the three hoardings (measuring 80x80 feet each) and ₹11 lakh per month for the fourth hoarding, which collapsed on May 13.

Khalid, an IPS officer of 1997 batch is at present posted as ADG (Protection of civil rights). He did not respond to calls and messages about his suspension.

The Ghatkopar plot where the hoarding stood was originally owned by MHADA but was given to the Government Railway Police to construct residential quarters. Some of the buildings along the highway had become dilapidated and were pulled down, and the land was transferred for police welfare activity. Instead, a petrol pump operated by Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited came up on the plot as did the four hoardings by Ego Media

The suspension order said that the state has decided to suspend Quaisar Khalid for administrative lapses and irregularities in sanctioning the hoarding without approval of the DGP office, and by deviating from the approved size norms.

In the past Khalid has departmental inquiries during his tenure as deputy commissioner of police (ports) of Mumbai, for alleged irregularities in purchases at Nagpur, for alleged irregularities in recruitment at Wardha and for taking possession of residential quarters when it was not allocated to him. Last year, all these departmental probes were closed and he was promoted as ADGP.