Ghatkopar hoarding collapse: How did hoarding go from 200 sq ft to 33,600 sq ft?

Suspended IPS officer Quaiser Khalid has claimed that one month before his transfer he only gave the goahead for erecting a 200sqft hoarding to Ego Media as per the terms and conditions of the Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited pump in Ghatkopar EastAccording to Khalid after he handed over charge to his successor Ravindra Shisve the latter overlooked certain terms and conditions Khalid also claimed that some of the dates in the documents had been tampered with to make it seem that he was responsible for approving the oversized hoarding In his statement Khalid has explained everything about the Ghatkopar hoarding from the etendering process which was initiated by his predecessor Ravindra SengaonkarFormer Government Railway Police Commissioner Quaiser Khalid right Khalidrsquos successor Ravindra ShisveAccording to Khalidrsquos statement to the Mumbai Crime Branch two days before the charge sheet was filed the etender for four hoardings in Ghatkopar was initiated by his predecessor in 2020 and after he took over he proceeded according to the terms and conditions Khalid claimed that the initial tender was issued by BPCL and the winning bidder was Qicom Brand Solution However since Qicom was not paying the Railways a fresh bid was invited and the contract was awarded to Ego Media as it was the highest bidderlsquoSought legal opinionsrsquoKhalid mentioned that they sought legal opinions from former Bombay High Court judge Nirgude the APS law firm and the legal officer of Railways He clarified that he never stated that the land belonged to the Indian Railways The etender mentioned that the land belonged to the state government but the title of the land was under the home department government railway headquarters Khalid pointed out that while the BMC collected taxes the hoarding concerns were related to the Railways The legal opinion clearly indicated that BMC approval was not required for land under railway jurisdiction Khalid claimed he was unaware of who paid the legal fees to Justice Nirgude and the law firm The charge sheet claims that it was Ego Media who had done soThe site of the billboard collapse on May 13 File pic right Bhavesh Bhinde head of Ego Media who is named in charge sheetKhalid further explained that the director general of police DGP officersquos permission was not sought because in September 2020 it approved a BPCLoperated petrol pump at Ghatkopar which was 60x60 sq m The proposal for the pump was sent by Sengaonkar and was approved by the DGP office Khalid clarified in his statement that the approval and design already included permission for a hoarding Therefore he did not seek additional permission from the DGP office as it had been preapproved during Sengaonkarrsquos tenureOther claimsAccording to Khalid he approved a 200 sq ft hoarding on November 22 2022 and noted that if the size were to be increased the rent for the GRP should be considered This issue remained unresolved when he handed over charge to Shisve Until April 21 2023 Shisave did not decide on the matter and forwarded a proposal to the DGP office to regularise the hoarding size to 33600 sq ft The DGP office rejected this proposal and instead issued a showcause notice to ShisveQuaiser Khalidrsquos statement to Crime BranchShisve responded to the DGP office on September 16 2023 arguing that the plot was commercial and would remain so even without the hoarding thus permission should be granted However the office did not grant the permission Khalid claimed that Shisve also received multiple complaints about the illegal hoarding being larger than the size approved by him Khalid These complaints were made by former Ghatkopar corporator and BJP leader Kirit Somaiya RTI activist Anil Galgali and social activist Saleem PathanAccording to Khalid Ego Media submitted an application for revised rental where the size of the billboard was increased to 33600 sq ft on December 19 2022 his last day in office And as this was a policy matter he refused to take any decision and asked the office to put up the matter before ShisveAccording to Khalid BPCL objected to the scale of digging by Ego Media on the plot allocated for running the pump An office note was put up before Shisve on December 21 2022 as it violated Petroleum and Explosives Safety Organisation PESO licence conditions and a request for the stoppage of work was made According to Khalid Shisve failed to take any action on the violation of the original order dated November 22 2022 by him which permitted a hoarding up to 200 sq ft in size as per the standard design of the petrol pumpNotice before mishapKhalid further stated that on April 30 2024 13 days before the hoarding collapsed the BMC issued a notice to the GRP to remove the illegal hoarding However it appears that Shisve did not take any action on this and instead continued to collect rent from EGO Media According to sources Ego Media was paying around 12 lakh per month for the hoarding and by the time it collapsed over one crore had been paid to the RailwaysKhalidrsquos statement concludes ldquoIt appears that Shisve did not act on these aspects and hence on May 13 the illegal hoarding collapsed due to a natural disaster killing 17 people and injuring more than 80rdquoHe also claimed that the construction work took place during Shisversquos tenure and that it was the latterrsquos responsibility to check the hoardingrsquos stability According to Khalid the land at the site was soft and marshy While in typical cases in Mumbai digging to a depth of three meters is sufficient at Ghatkopar a depth of 10 metres is required to reach hard rockOther sideIn his statement Shisve said that he was shocked when it was brought to his notice that approval from the DGP office had not been taken for the hoarding He immediately asked his office to prepare a letter to inform his superiors and the letter was sent to the DGP office As commissioner he was handling law and order crime control and administrative work which kept him busy When he eventually followed up on the letter sent to the DGP office he was informed that no response had been received and that the letter had not been acknowledged Consequently he wrote a fresh letter on April 21 2023He added that in August 2023 an ADGrank officer sent him a letter and spoke to him on the phone about how permission was granted for the hoarding asking him to prepare a detailed report ldquoOn September 16 2023 I sent a clarification to the DGP office Later I learned that a showcause notice was issued to Khalid by the DGP office Khalid then called one of the junior clerks in my office and asked for all the files to review The clerk sought my permission which I granted After that there were no further orders from the DGP office until the hoarding collapsedrdquo Shisversquos statement readsShisve claimed that complaints made by the corporator and activists were never brought to his notice ldquoYou wonrsquot see any remarks from me on those complaints I have 21 years of experience in the service and addressing such complaints is my responsibilityrdquoApril 30Day BMC issued notice concerning hoarding