Pressure mounts on DCM Devendra Fadnavis to suspend IPS officer Qaiser Khalid over Ghatkopar hoarding scam

Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, who is in-charge of the home ministry, is under increasing pressure to suspend 1997-batch IPS officer Qaiser Khalid for his alleged role in the Ghatkopar hardware store scam. A former BJP MP has already written to Fadnavis urging him to suspend Khalid. Other senior politicians too are said to have expressed the opinion that the officer should be suspended as the Special Investigation Team (SIT), which is probing the May 13 collapse of a hardware store built by Ego Media at a BPCL petrol station on the Eastern Express Highway in Ghatkopar (East), in which 17 people were crushed to death, has found documentary evidence of financial transactions between Khalid’s wife Summanna’s company and Ego Media.

Summana and a certain Mohd Arshad Khan are directors of Mahpara Garments company. A search by FPJ of the company’s online records confirmed that Summana and Khan are indeed directors of the company, which was incorporated by the Registrar of Companies on June 28, 2022, with a paid-up capital of one lakh rupees.

When FPJ contacted Khalid on Sunday, he replied, “You should contact the director. I am not connected with him.” However, he did not want to give out his wife’s mobile number. Khalid, incidentally, comes from a family of entrepreneurs in Srinagar that trades in dry fruits.

The SIT has found that Bhavesh Bhinde of Ego Media Pvt Ltd transferred Rs 46 lakhs to Govandi-based Mahpara Garments during the financial year 2022-23. It is not clear what dealings Mahpara did with Ego Media that the latter had to transfer such a huge sum to them. Khalid was the Railway Police Commissioner when Ego Media was granted permission for the Killer billboard and other billboards in Ghatkopar and Dadar on railway land.

So far, only five people have been arrested in connection with the tragedy. Deputy Commissioner of BMC’s N District Sunil Dalvi, who was in regular touch with Bhinde, has not yet been booked by the police. The murder hoarding was under the jurisdiction of N District, whose office is opposite the railway station in Ghatkopar (East).

Noted RTI activist Anil Galgali said when he filed RTI applications to the BMC and the Railway Police asking what action was taken against their officials who had approved the killer hoardings, he received no response. In fact, both the agencies claimed that the records (of approval of the hoardings) were not available.

Meanwhile, several large hoardings exceeding the prescribed size of 40 x 40 feet continue to pose a threat to citizens in different parts of the metropolis. In the case of hoardings on railway land, the Railway Administration has informed the Supreme Court that it will take responsibility for the hoardings on railway land this monsoon season. The structural stability certificates of the hoardings on railway land are being submitted by the contractors, while activists have demanded that the Railways should check the structural stability of these hoardings itself instead of relying on the contractors.

Published on: Sunday, June 23, 2024, 23:19 IST