IPS officer Khalid suspended for allowing hoarding sans DGP office nod

Mumbai: Maharashtra Government on Tuesday suspended IPS officer Quaiser Khalid for allowing a hoarding - whose collapse last month claimed 17 lives – without the approval of the DGP office.

The giant 140×120 feet hoarding in Mumbai's Ghatkopar area collapsed during gusty winds and unseasonal rains.

A notification issued by the state Home Department on Friday said the IPS officer, as the then Government Railway Police (GRP) commissioner, permitted the erection of the hoarding without taking mandatory permission from the office of Maharashtra Director General of Police (DGP).

Khalid committed administrative lapses and irregularities in sanctioning the hoarding on his own, the notification said. The hoarding size also deviated from the approved norms, it added.

The suspension comes amid reports of Mumbai police probing a series of money transactions allegedly linking the company that owned the hoarding, and a business associate of the wife of the IPS officer.