Mohammed Qaiser Khalid, IPS officer, has been suspended by the Maharashtra government in connection with the May 13 Ghatkopar hoarding collapse case in which 17 persons were killed. Khalid was the railway police commissioner at the relevant time when he granted permission to Ego Media Pvt Ltd to erect the killer hoarding.
The FPJ had carried a report on June 23 stating that pressure is mounting on deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, who is in charge of the home portfolio, to suspend the controversial officer. Khalid is currently the additional director general of police ( Protection of Civil Rights). His suspension order will take effect immediately.
The Special Investigating Team (SIT) probing the crash found out that Ego Media Pvt Ltd had transferred Rs 46 lakhs the account of Mahpara garments company in which Khalid's wife Sumanna was a director along with one Mohd Arshad Khan. Mahpara company, which has its address at Govandi, had not rendered any services to Ego Media and yet received Rs 46 lakhs. This raised the doubts of the SIT. When the FPJ had contacted Khalid, who belongs to the IPS batch of 1997, he declined to comment.
A report filed by the director general of police to the government had listed a slew of "gross irregularities" in the sanctioning of the 120'x140' hoarding.
Meanwhile, ex-corporator Pravin Chheda has demanded suspension of the assistant commissioner of the BMC's `N' ward in Ghatkopar Gajanan Belare, in whose jurisdiction the hoarding was located. The functioning of the licence department of this ward is already under scrutiny by the SIT.
