Mumbai: Mumbai police on Thursday arrested Bhavesh Bhinde, whose company put up the giant billboard whose collapse claimed 16 lives, from Rajasthan's Udaipur.
The crime branch team of Mumbai police arrested Bhinde, the director of Ego Media Pvt Ltd, the advertising agency responsible for erecting the hoarding in Ghatkopar area of Mumbai. At least 16 people were killed, and 75 injured after the billboard collapsed in an unexpected dust storm in Mumbai on Monday.
Earlier in the day, the rescue operation was called off with no hopes of finding survivors three days after the tragedy. The rescue team retrieved the bodies of a retired GM of Mumbai airport ATC and his wife from the wreckage at the crash site, taking the toll to 16.
Former general manager (GM) of Mumbai ATC Manoj Chansoria (60) and his wife Anita (59) were missing since Monday evening when they left for Jabalpur in Madhya Pradesh from the ATC guest house in western Mumbai in a car. The bodies of a man and a woman were extricated from a car stuck underneath the collapsed hoarding shortly after midnight on Wednesday, and the victims were later identified as Manoj Chansoria and his wife.
A 120 feet x 120 feet billboard, which according to officials was illegally installed, collapsed on a petrol pump in the Chheda Nagar area of suburban Ghatkopar during a dust storm on Monday evening, killing 16 people and injuring 75 others.
The search and rescue operation at the crash site, which went on for 66 hours, was called off at around 10.30 am on Thursday, an official of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) said.
