Mumbai hoarding collapse: Owner booked in rape case, fined 21 times for illegal billboards

Bhavesh Bhinde, owner of the firm that owned the massive 120×120 hoarding, was booked under Section 376 (punishment for rape) of the Indian Penal code at Mulund police station earlier this year. But, he was granted anticipatory bail by a lower court.

The owner of the billboard in the Ghatkopar region, which killed 14 people after collapsing during a violent rain and dust storm on Monday (May 13), is a rape suspect who has previously been punished at least 21 times for erecting unlawful hoardings.

The Pant Nagar police, whose jurisdiction included the Mumbai hoarding fall event, filed a First Information Report (FIR) on Monday night against Bhavesh Prabhudas Bhinde, 51, the director of Ego Media Pvt Ltd, which had a 10-year lease on the hoarding. According to court papers, a rape and molestation charge was filed against Bhinde at the Mulund police station on January 24 of this year. Finally, the Bombay High Court granted him anticipatory bail. 

Bhinde, who ran as an Independent candidate in the 2009 Maharashtra Assembly elections, had previously declared 21 instances in which he had been fined under the Mumbai Municipal Corporation (MMC) Act for putting up banners without permission, as well as two offences under the Negotiable Instruments (NI) Act, which typically involve cheque bouncing.

Apart from that, according to filings he made when contesting the 2009 Maharashtra Assembly elections from Mulund, Bhide stated that he had been prosecuted under sections 328 (putting up hoardings without authorization) and 471 (fines) of the MMC Act on 21 times, as well as two instances under the NI Act. The status of the cases remains uncertain.

In the latest FIR registered against him at the Pant Nagar police station on Monday night in connection with the Mumbai hoarding collapse incident, he was charged under sections 304 (culpable homicide), 338 (causing grievous hurt), 337 (causing hurt by negligent act), 34 (common intention) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

The Ghatkopar hoarding situated beside a petrol pump at Pant Nagar on the Eastern Express Highway (EEH) measured 120 x 120 as against the permitted size of 40 x 40 feet.