The structural consultant’s top official was arrested in 2010 in a bribery case.
The construction of an administrative building of Mumbai Police headquarters at Crawford market has not yet begun but the controversies around it have. Reason: A top official of Mahimtura Consultants, the firm responsible for ensuring the building’s safety, was arrested in 2010 by the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) officials in a graft case.
Police sources said the director general of police (housing) had appointed architect Hafeez Contractor to design the new police building and the agreement was signed a decade ago. Since then, things have been moving at a snail’s pace. The contractor had appointed Mahimtura Consultants as their structural consultant.
Sailesh Mahimtura, who is shown as the managing director of Mahimtura Consultants Private Limited on the company’s website, was arrested in May 2010. He had allegedly demanded Rs30lakh bribe from a developer, when he was a member of High-Rise Building Committee of the state urban development department.
When this correspondent visited the office of Mahimtura Consultants at Fort’s Unique House on April 4, he was directed to Hafeez Contractor’s office. “It is the responsibility of Mahimtura Consultants to certify that the building is safe. We have taken the required permission from the heritage committee for our project. Sailesh has nothing to do with the current project of the police building,” said Rachana Amin, senior associate of Architect Hafeez Contractor.
Sources said that after Mahimtura’s arrest, top police officers were informed about the firm’s association with the new police headquarters building, but the police went ahead with it.
“As per my knowledge, it is some Pune-based company which has been roped in as structural consultant of the new building,” said Pravin Dixit, DGP Housing. “The decision to appoint a structural consultant is the architect’s and in this case it is Hafeez Contractor.”
A couple of days later, the board put up at the commissioner’ office bearing the name of Mahimtura Consultants and its office address was pulled down and a new board put up, minus the details of structural consultants.
“Someone from the DGP office replaced the old board with a new one,” said a constable from the police headquarters.
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