Mithi River desilting: 3 Mumbai civic officials, 5 contractors booked for Rs 65 cr scam

New Delhi, May 6 (IANS) Making its first move in the Rs 65 crore Mithi River desilting scam, the Mumbai Police registered an FIR and conducted searches at eight locations targeting suspects, including contractors and civic officials.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (EOW) Sangramsingh Nishandar said the FIR was registered at Azad Maidan Police Station following preliminary findings that pointed towards “culpability”.

Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) officials and contractors are accused of bogus billing and release of funds without physical desilting being done in the river – a major reason for rainwater not flowing into the river and causing flooding in areas along the banks.

Nishandar said the FIR has been registered due to the use of fake bills and fake MoUs deposited in the BMC related to the alleged desilting work.

The FIR has been registered for penal provisions dealing with cheating, breach of trust, forgery and conspiracy. If the charges are proved in court, the accused may get a punishment of up to seven years in jail.

The FIR covers offences committed during the preparation of a contract for desilting, transportation of desilted material’s dumping at nine spots and verification of the contractors’ obligations under the contract by officials, he said.

Nishandar said the SIT investigators scanned the processes and contract procedures and found that the contractors deposited fake bills concerning nine spots where the desilted material was supposed to be dumped on land.

He also pointed to discrepancies in MoUs signed between owners of land where the silt was allegedly dumped by desilting contractors and BMC officials.

In some cases, landowners have told the police that they never entered into a contract with contractors engaged in desilting, yet fake MoUs bearing their names were deposited by the contractors in BMC, he said.

“Some of the owners of lands, where the silt was to be dumped, mentioned in documents, don’t exist. So, when there were no landowners and land, there is a suspicion that the silt was never removed from the river,” he said.

Some of the companies under the EOW scanner include Acute Design, Kailash Construction, N.A. Construction, Nikhil Construction and J.R.S Infrastructure. “These companies have been accused of depositing fake MoUs,” he said.

The DCP said the other aspect of the FIR deals with a field visit conducted by a company called Matprop in February 2020 at the Mithi River, after which its officials, in league with BMC officials, manipulated the terms of the desilting contract for illegal gain.

The FIR named the accused civic officials as Prashant Ramugade, Assistant Engineer and Designated Officer in the Rainwater Drainage Department of the Municipal Corporation, Deputy Chief Engineer (Pajwa), East Suburbs (P.), Ganesh Bendre, Deputy Chief Engineer (Prvp), Pajwa (P.), Taishette, and others.

Among the private persons and contractors named in the FIR are Jay Joshi of Virgo Specialities Pvt Ltd, other partners and directors, Ketan Kadam of Vodar India LLP, other partners and directors and contractor Bhupendra Purohit and others, he said.

Others named in the FIR include Deepak Mohan and Kishore Menon, he said.

An FIR in the desilting case names five contractors, three middlemen, two company officials, and three BMC officials, accusing them of causing wrongful loss to the civic agency, said the police.

The SIT was formed after BJP leader and MLC Pravin Darekar and Prasad Lad raised questions on this issue during the monsoon session of the state Assembly.

The desilting project was part of a larger Rs 1,100 crore Mithi River beautification plan.

Last month, the EOW questioned 10 contractors and scanned BMC CCTV footage to inquire if there was any proof of silt being removed or weighed before being dumped, as mandated in the contracts.

--IANS

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