Accused in hoarding crash case named in 23 criminal cases

Bhavesh Bhinde the owner of the advertising agency which had allegedly put up the hoarding that crashed on a petrol pump in Ghatkopar area has 23 criminal cases registered against him and was recently arrested on rape charges police said on Tuesday evening reported news agency PTIAfter Mondays hoarding crash in which at least 14 people died he has been absconding while a case under IPC section 304 causing death by negligence was registered against him at Pantnagar police station in the city reported PTIIn January Bhinde was arrested in a rape case registered with Mulund police station but later secured bail a police official said Bhinde owner of Ego Media had also contested the Maharashtra assembly elections in 2009 he added reported PTIAccording to BJP leader Kirit Somaiya another firm of Bhindes had been blacklisted by the commercial department of the Indian Railways in 201718 after several complaints of installing illegal hoardings were filed against it reported PTIMeanwhile two more bodies have been located under the debris at the site of a giant hoarding collapse in Mumbai as the search and rescue operation continued more than 40 hours after the incident officials said on WednesdayThe bodies were spotted last night at the hoarding crash site in Ghatkopar but were yet to be pulled out they saidThe illegal hoarding that stood on a piece of land in possession of the Government Railway Police GRP crashed on a petrol pump in Chheda Nagar area on Monday evening when the city was hit by dust storms and unseasonal rainsRescue teams had earlier extricated 89 persons from under the collapsed hoarding of whom 14 were declared dead while the other 75 were injured as per officialsNational Disaster Response Forces NDRF Assistant Commandant Nikhil Mudholkar told PTI on Wednesday We have spotted two bodies stuck under the third girder of the collapsed hoarding but we are facing difficulties in reaching the spot One needs to crawl to reach thereWe have removed the first girder after cutting it overnight and are now removing the debris with the help of earthmovers and excavators he saidThe NDRF personnel will now cut the second girder and there are more than five such girders at the crash site he saidAfter removing the girders it will be known how many people are still trapped the official saidOn Wednesday morning a small fire broke out at the incident site during the search and rescue operation but it was immediately doused by the fire tenders deployed there an NDRF official saidWith inputs from PTI