Mumbai police’s EOW arrests 2 middlemen in multi-crore Mithi River desilting scam | Mumbai News

After months of inquiries, EOW SIT officials came across various financial irregularities pertaining to Mithi river desilting works contracts between 2021-22 and 2022-23. These irregularities were related to the transportation of sludge and its dumping on the ground.

EOW found that the contractors submitted nine fake MoUs. After the FIR, the probe agency also searched seven places, including houses of BMC officials, contractors and the middlemen.

The EOW booked the accused under sections 406, 409, 420, 465, 467, 468, 471, 120-B of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

BMC assistant engineer Prashant Ramugade, deputy chief engineers Ganesh Bendre and Prashant Tayshette; Deepak Mohan, Kishore Menon, Jay Joshi, Ketan Kadam and Bhupendra Purohit, the directors of Acute Designing, Kailash Construction Company, NA Construction, Nikhil Construction, and JRS Infrastructure, respectively, are among the accused.

EOW SIT Inspector Bilal Shaikh is the complainant in the case. EOW officials said more FIRs are likely in the case in future. Sources said that EOW will issue notices to the accused for questioning soon.

The Mithi desilting scam

As per the FIR, initially filed with the Azad Maidan police, the accused BMC officers allegedly misused their positions for wrongful financial gains. The FIR further alleges that they conspired to defraud the BMC financially by including terms and conditions as mentioned in the contract agreement regarding the silt pusher machine and the multipurpose amphibious pontoon machine. They allegedly colluded with Mohan Menon of Matprop Company, Joshi of Virgo Specialties, Ketan Kadam and other partners and directors of Vodar India LLP, and contractor Bhupendra Purohit, among others.

“The accused BMC officer of the Storm Water Drains (SWD) division of the Municipal Corporation, without verifying the authenticity of the dumping sites mentioned in the false and fabricated MOU submitted by the directors of the contractor companies Acute Designs, Kailash Construction Company, N A Construction, Nikhil Construction Company, J.R.S Infrastructure and others, provided and helped contractors take disadvantage,” the EOW officer stated in the FIR.

Also, the FIR added that officials of the SWD division have caused financial loss to the BMC by approving bills based on fake documents related to the weighbridge and log sheets.

More financial benefits squeezed from contractors: EOW

According to the EOW’s FIR, the accused Deepak Mohan and Ketan Kadam of Matprop, told the contractors that Jay Joshi is the owner of Virgo Specialties and Ketan Kadam is looking after the work of Voder India LLP. They allegedly told the contractors that the Matprop company will do the MOU Undertaking, but the machinery rental agreement will have to be done with Virgo Specialities Pvt. Ltd. and Voder India LLP, and the two-year rental of the machinery will be Rs 8 crore.

After the negotiations, it was decided to pay a rental of up to Rs 4 crore for two years. This is how the Matprop company, in collusion with the BMC SWD division officials, forced the contractors to go to these two companies without giving the MOU Undertaking itself and got more financial benefits from the contractors, EOW officials stated in the FIR.