Two more arrested in Mumbai hoarding collapse case

Mumbai: In relation to the May 13 hoarding collapse in Mumbai's Ghatkopar neighbourhood, which claimed 17 lives, two more people from Goa were taken into custody on Saturday, according to a police officer.

The two people who were detained were Janhavi Marathe and Sagar Patil, who were connected to Ego Media Private Limited, the company that built the hoarding, according to the Crime Branch official. With these apprehensions, the number of people arrested increased to four.

Marathe was a director with the firm till December last year and had allegedly received financial benefits in connection with the ill-fated hoarding, while Patil was held after a probe showed he was the contractor who erected the structure, the official said.

Patil is also associated with Ego Media Private Limited, whose director Bhavesh Bhinde was named as the main accused and arrested earlier along with structural engineer Manoj Sanghu, who provided the stability certificate to the hoarding allegedly without detailed inspection, the official added.

Bhinde, who was held from Udaipur in Rajasthan, has been in the outdoor media business since 1998 and has been fined at least 100 times by the civic body for alleged irregularities, as per police.

With PTI inputs