Mumbai Police launches manhunt for Ghatkopar billboard owner Bhavesh Bhinde

More than 10 police teams from Mumbai and Gujarat are trying to trace Bhavesh Bhinde, director of Ego Media Pvt Ltd, the advertising agency that owns the billboard that collapsed in Ghatkopar on May 13, killing 14 people and injuring 74 others.

The 51-year-old’s last traced location was in Lonavala on Tuesday evening, after which three police teams were dispatched to the hill station, according to an officer from the Mumbai police’s crime branch. Police teams are currently looking for him in Lonavala, Mumbai, Pune, various airports, and his native place in Gujarat, added the officer.

Bhinde’s company had set up the 120×120-foot advertising hoarding in Pant Nagar, Ghatkopar East, which collapsed after being hit by a short spell of unseasonal rain and gusty winds on May 13. The massive billboard fell on a busy petrol pump, trapping close to 100 people under it, 14 of whom have died.

Ego Media had even applied to the Limca Book of Records to declare it the largest commercial hoarding in India. The Mumbai police plan to check with the Government Railway Police (GRP), which owns the land on which the billboard was erected, if it specified the size of the structure when the deal was struck with Ego Media, a senior officer said.

As soon as Bhinde got wind of the first death following the billboard collapse on Monday, he switched off his phone and fled from the city. The phone was switched on in Lonavala on Tuesday evening for a brief period, after which he’s been untraceable, said an officer. Once his name cropped up in the case, a police team visited his home in Mulund, as well as the homes of some of his relatives, but he was nowhere to be found, added the officer.

The Pant Nagar police has registered a case against Bhinde under sections 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder), 337 (causing hurt by act endangering life or personal safety of others), 338 (causing grievous hurt by act endangering life or personal safety of others) and 34 (common intention) of the Indian Penal Code.

There are two other cases registered against Bhinde in Mulund — for rape and molestation, and cheating. A woman in his office registered the rape and molestation case against him in January this year. Bhinde managed to get an anticipatory bail from the Bombay high court and was therefore not arrested by the Mulund police, although a chargesheet has been filed against him. The second case was registered in the same police station in 2016.

Apart from these cases, Bhinde was also fined 21 times for various violations under the Mumbai Municipal Corporation Act, 1888, before 2009, said an officer at the Mulund police station. Bhinde had contested the Maharashtra assembly election as an independent candidate from the Mulund constituency in 2009.

The Mumbai police have also approached several billboard contractors to understand the nature of their work, in order to figure out who is responsible for the incident, said the crime branch officer. The case is still with the local police, but since the death toll is high, the crime branch feels the investigation should be transferred to them, the officer added.