India, Jan. 31 -- The Mumbai police have submitted a report to the state home department, stating that they have found "criminal misconduct" on the part of a senior police officer, who is squarely in the line of fire over the Ghatkopar hoarding collapse in May last year.

Former commissioner of the Government Railway Police (GRP), Quaiser Khalid, has been named in the report, after he allowed the hoarding to be erected on GRP property even though it flouted several regulations. The oversized 120x140-foot hoarding had crashed on a petrol pump in Ghatkopar, claiming 17 lives and injuring 74 people.

The report, submitted by the Mumbai Crime Branch, states that Khalid had flouted the tendering process for the hoarding as required under the l...