Mithi River scam: Accused arranged foreign trips for BMC officials, say SIT

The Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the Mumbai Police’s Economic Offences Wing (EOW) on Tuesday revealed that the accused in the Mithi River desilting scam arranged foreign trips for BMC officials and their families as kickbacks in exchange for favourable treatment in awarding desilting contracts, an official said.

The accused were produced in court on Tuesday and have been remanded to judicial custody.

According to the EOW’s remand application, the arrested accused include Ketan Kadam, a middleman and director of Woder India LLP, and Jayesh Joshi of Virgo Specialities Pvt. Ltd., a firm that allegedly supplied equipment such as silt-pusher machines to various contractors involved in the desilting work.

EOW sources revealed that the investigation has found Kadam sponsored international travel — including flights and hotel stays — for BMC Assistant Engineer Prashant Ramgude.

“It has come to light that trips to Singapore and Dubai were arranged by accused Kadam for the BMC engineer, who is now accused and wanted in connection with the Mithi River desilting scam,” an EOW officer stated.

According to the remand application, the accused, Ramgude, made a day trip to Singapore with his family, and the hotel– InterContinental Singapore–was booked by Kadam. Similarly, during a trip to Dubai, the hotel arrangements were also made by Kadam. The details of these bookings have been retrieved from Kadam.

The EOW has also stated that the investigation has revealed a woman working at a beauty parlour who is believed to be very close to Ramgude. They suspect that Ramgude may be accepting bribes through her, and this angle is currently being investigated.

Dr Yusuf Iqbal and Adv. Zain Shroff from YNA Legal LLP appeared for accused Jay Joshi in the Mithi River desilting matter and argued before the court that he is an independent investor and infra-equipment provider who legally imported and owns the machines. These were leased to various contractors as per private agreements, without any direct payment or contractual engagement with MCGM.

These machines were not leased to MCGM. There is no financial gain or wrongful benefit to Joshi from MCGM or anybody else. As per the allegations, the actual tender beneficiaries — the contractors — and the officials who are allegedly responsible for the tender irregularities remain untouched and not even investigated.

“Our client, who is a third-party private vendor who supplied machines on rent, is being made a scapegoat and dragged into this alleged scam when he is not even remotely associated with MCGM. Thus, his continued detention is wholly unwarranted,” Adv. Shroff said.

Hearing the arguments, the court rejected the prosecution’s application for further police custody and granted judicial custody.

The FIR alleges that all accused acted in collusion to defraud the BMC of Rs 65 crore and further investigations are underway.

This article first appeared on Mid Day