Two arrested in Mithi river desilting `scam'

Mumbai, May 7 (PTI) Two persons, alleged middlemen, have been arrested in the Rs 65 crore Mithi river desilting `scam', the police said on Wednesday.

The arrested men were identified as Ketan Kadam and Jai Joshi, said a senior official of the Economic Offences Wing of Mumbai Police.

On Tuesday, the special investigation team of the EOW which is probing the case had conducted searches at the residences and offices of Kadam and Joshi along with those of BMC officials Prashant Ramgude and Ganesh Bendre and a few contractors.

After the searches, Kadam and Joshi were taken into custody, the official said, adding they would be produced before the court later in the day.

Kadam and Joshi were allegedly involved in the process of renting out silt pusher machines and multipurpose amphibious pontoon machines of Matprop to contractors.

The Mithi river flows through Mumbai. It is alleged that Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) officials tailored the tender for the river desilting contract in such a way that it benefitted a particular supplier of machinery.

Co-accused Dipak Mohan and Kishore Menon of Matprop allegedly offered 'silt pusher' and multipurpose amphibious pontoon machines to the BMC costing Rs 3.09 crore.

A team of BMC officials visited the plant in Kerala, and subsequently the BMC floated tenders with the exact same specifications, so that any contractor would be required to buy or hire only Matprop machines, as per the investigation.

According to the official, the BMC officials and contractors hatched a conspiracy and made maximum use of these machines at an inflated rate.

Earlier, the rate for normal desilting was Rs 1,609 per metric ton, but for these machines it was increased to Rs 2,193 per metric tonnes, he said, adding the vigilance department of the BMC had objected to that rate, following which the earlier rate was approved.

The officials also made a payment of Rs 17.07 crore to the contractors, the EOW official said.

Further, the contractors generated fraudulent bills for transporting sludge out of Mumbai, the SIT has claimed.

The EOW had said on Tuesday that it has evidence that when a contractor went to Matprop to purchase these machine, he was directed to middlemen Ketan Kadam and Joshi.

They allegedly offered to rent the machines for two years for Rs 8 crore and later settled for Rs 4 crore.

The case has been registered against a total of 13 persons though only two have been arrested so far. PTI DC KRK

Source: PTI