NEW DELHI: The special Investigating team probing the Ghatkopar
hoarding collapse
case that left 17 people dead,
arrested
the ex-director of Ego Media Janhavi Marathe and
civil contractor
Sagar Kumbhar from a
hotel
room in Goa.
A Mumbai court on May 31 had rejected Marathe’s anticipatory bail plea. While Marathe claimed she was “merely a signing authority” in the hoarding contract, police told the court she had “direct and active” involvement in the construction of the collapsed structure.
As many as 17 persons died and 74 others were injured after the illegal hoarding, measuring 120 feet x 120 feet in size, crashed onto a nearby petrol pump during a dust storm and unseasonal rains in Mumbai on May 13
As per a report submitted by a technological institute to police, the hoarding was installed on a weak foundation.
While ideally any hoarding structure in the city should be able to withstand wind speeds of 158 kilometres per hour, the billboard that collapsed in Ghatkopar could withstand a wind speed of only 49 kmph, according to the report submitted recently. On the day of the incident, the wind speed was 87 kmph, an official said.
Bhavesh Bhinde, director of an advertising firm which had installed the hoarding, was arrested after the incident.
The accused had opposed his arrest saying the high velocity of the wind that led to the hoarding collapse was an “act of God” and was not in his control.
A Special Investigation Team (
SIT
), probing the hoarding collapse, had arrested Bhinde and structural engineer Manoj Sanghu, empanelled by the BMC, who had given a stability certificate to the hoarding.
(This is a developing story)
