MUMBAI, Jan 31: The Mumbai Crime Branch has urged the Maharashtra home department to initiate a criminal probe against suspended IPS officer Quaiser Khalid under the Prevention of Corruption Act in connection with the May 13 Ghatkopar hoarding collapse, an official said on Friday.
In its report, which has been submitted to the state home department, the Crime Branch accused Khalid of allowing the hoarding to come up on railway police land by violating regulations as well as tender norms. Khalid was Mumbai railway police commissioner at the time of the collapse, which killed 17 and injured around 80 persons.
“The Crime Branch report has suggested that a probe be conducted under Section 13 of Prevention of Corruption Act since criminal misconduct has been found. This will need the approval of the state home department under Section 17A of the PCA,” the official informed.
Related Posts:
The Maharashtra Anti Corruption Bureau has also initiated an inquiry after businessman Mohammad Raees Khan alleged he had paid Khalid and the latter’s wife’s business partner Rs 30 lakh and sponsored their hotel stay in the United States of America to bag a hoarding contract.
Khalid was suspended six weeks after the collapse of the hoarding, which was installed by private firm Ego Media owned by Bhavesh Bhinde.
Khalid is also under scrutiny after a police probe found that an accused in the collapse case Arshad Khan, who is the IPS officer’s wife’s business partner, allegedly took Rs 84 lakh from Ego Media. Khan was on the run since the hoarding collapse and was arrested from Lucknow in December.
Arshad Khan, however, has claimed he received this money from Ego Media as payment for medicines supplied from his brother-in-law’s shop to Bhinde. Arshad Khan has told police the medicines were supplied to people during the COVID-19 pandemic.
As per police, Khan had used the bank accounts of his wife, brother-in-law and nephew to deposit the cheques issued by Ego Media. (PTI)
