The owner of the illegal hoarding which fell on a petrol pump after a massive dust storm hit Mumbai on Monday was earlier booked in a rape case by the Mumbai police. The main accused already has 21 non-cognisable complaints against him, which are related to putting up banners without permission. These are all under sections 328 (putting hoarding without permission) and 471 (fines) of the Mumbai Municipal Corporation Act. He had declared these complaints as well as two offences related to bouncing of cheques in his poll affidavit when he contested as an independent candidate from Mulund in the 2009 Maharashtra assembly elections.
The civic body had earlier said it issued a notice to M/s Ego Media Private Limited for installing this particular hoarding. Civic officials said the death toll in the incident has risen to 14 while 75 others are injured. Rescue operations at the site have come to an end. Chief minister Eknath Shinde, who visited the incident spot late on Monday, has ordered a structural audit of all hoardings in the city.
He has announced an aid of Rs 5 lakh to the kin of each person killed in the incident. There are also cases of tree poisoning registered against him by the BMC. Earlier, he ran a company named Guju Ads which was blacklisted by the BMC after multiple cases were registered against him and the firm. Despite the blacklisting, he launched his Ego Media Pvt Ltd and started securing contracts for hoardings and billboards.