13 Booked For Mithi River Cleaning Fraud
The EOW raided at least eight locations on Tuesday morning, May 6, including the residences and offices of contractors of the BMC.
Mumbai: Ahead of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) polls, the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Mumbai Police has registered the First Information Report (FIR) against 13 people in connection with the alleged corruption in the Mithi River cleaning project. It also conducted raids at several locations in the city since early Tuesday morning.
Three BMC officials, three middlemen and two private company officials have been booked for wrongful loss to the civic body worth more than Rs 65.54 crore in the alleged desilting scam.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (EOW) Sangramsingh Nishandar said the FIR was registered at Azad Maidan Police Station following preliminary findings that pointed towards “culpability.’ 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, he added.
The BMC officials and contractors are accused of bogus billing and release of funds without physical desilting being done in the river.
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.
The EOW raided at least eight locations on Tuesday morning, May 6, including the residences and offices of contractors of the BMC.
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 Legislature. The desilting project was part of a larger Rs 1,100 crore Mithi River beautification plan.
The development has come ahead of the BMC polls, which are expected to be held later this year. With an annual budget of more than Rs 74,000 crore, the BMC is the richest civic body in the country.
The Shiv Sena, before its split, had controlled the BMC for 25 consecutive years from 1997 to 2022. The BJP, which is planning to dethrone the Uddhav Thackeray-led party from power, has been accusing the Sena of widespread corruption in the civic body.