Mumbai hoarding crash: GRP commissioner ignored safety warnings, allowed illegal billboard, suspended cop tells SIT

MUMBAI: Suspended IPS officer Quaiser Khalid has claimed before an SIT probing the Ghatkopar hoarding crash that incumbent GRP commissioner Ravindra Shisve neither acted on complaints about the illegal billboard's huge size and nor checked its structural stability.

Khalid, who was Government Railway Police (GRP) commissioner when the hoarding crashed on a petrol pump in Mumbai's Ghatkopar area in May this year killing 17 persons, also claimed that these complaints were raised before Shisve through office notes.

Khalid was suspended for alleged administrative lapses and irregularities in sanctioning the hoarding on his own without approval from the Director General of Police's office.

His statement is part of a chargesheet submitted by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the Mumbai crime branch in the magistrate court last week.

Khalid told SIT officials that he had approved a maximum hoarding size of up to 200 square feet. This decision was based on the safety conditions required for other hoardings on the site, considering the local soil and climatic conditions, according to his statement.

He also considered the proximity of a petrol pump to the hoarding and imposed additional conditions prescribed by BPCL in their tender allotment order on Ego Media Private Limited, the operator for the billboard.

On December 19, 2022, Ego Media applied for revised rentals, proposing an increase in the board size to 33,600 square feet.

However, Khalid, who was under a transfer order and considered it a policy matter, refused to take any decision on the note and asked the office to put the matter before the incoming GRP Commissioner, Shisve, for orders.

Meanwhile, BPCL objected to the scale of digging for the hoarding by Ego Media Ltd on the plot allocated for the petrol pump, stating it violated the Petroleum and Explosives Safety Organization (PESO) license conditions. BPCL requested for stoppage of the work and restoration of the site to its original condition by filling the dug-up portion, Khalid claimed in the statement.

It was decided that BPCL's objection was meaningless as the land belonged to GRP, Mumbai. Consequently, the hoarding construction continued unabated with the tacit support of Shisve and Ego Media, resulting in a giant hoarding of 33,800 square feet, he further claimed.

After the hoarding was erected, several political, social, and non-governmental organisations raised objections over its construction, citing the collapse of another hoarding in Pune, which resulted in the death of five persons, and fearing a similar incident in Ghatkopar, according to Khalid.

"Shisve didn't take any action on these complaints. He neither got the structural stability of the hoarding checked nor the points raised in those complaints. All these complaints have been put up before him through office notes on which he has refused to pass on any orders, thereby clearly supporting Ego Media in the construction and running of the illegal hoarding," Khalid alleged.