Mumbai hoarding collapse: Police intensifies hunt for billboard owner Bhavesh Bhinde, last traced to Lonavala
hoarding that collapsed in Ghatkopar, killing 16 people, Hindustan Times reported. According to the report, Bhinde reportedly switched off his phone and fled the city as soon as reports about deaths from the billboard collapse emerged. Although his phone was briefly switched on in Lonavala on Tuesday evening, it has since been untraceable.
Bhinde, 51, was last traced to Lonavala on May 14. An officer from Mumbai police’s crime branch told HT that three police teams were dispatched to the hill station, acting on this lead. Per the daily, officers are searching for Bhinde in Lonavala, Mumbai, Pune, various airports, and his native place in Gujarat.
The report added that despite police visits to his residence in Mulund and the homes of some of his relatives, Bhinde remains elusive. Pant Nagar police have 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. Bhinde has two other cases against him in Mulund: one for rape and molestation filed by a woman in his office in January 2024 and another for cheating registered in 2016.
Although he secured anticipatory bail from the Bombay High Court, the police filed a charge sheet against him in the rape case. Before 2009, Bhinde was fined 21 times for various violations under the Mumbai Municipal Corporation Act, 1888. He also contested the Maharashtra assembly election as an independent candidate from Mulund in 2009.
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