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

The Special Investigation Team SIT of the Mumbai Policersquos 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 saidThe accused were produced in court on Tuesday and have been remanded to judicial custodyAccording to the EOWrsquos 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 siltpusher machines to various contractors involved in the desilting workEOW sources revealed that the investigation has found Kadam sponsored international travel mdash including flights and hotel stays mdash for BMC Assistant Engineer Prashant RamgudeldquoIt 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 scamrdquo an EOW officer statedAccording to the remand application the accused Ramgude made a day trip to Singapore with his family and the hotel InterContinental Singaporewas 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 KadamThe 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 investigatedDr 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 infraequipment 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 MCGMThese 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 mdash the contractors mdash and the officials who are allegedly responsible for the tender irregularities remain untouched and not even investigatedldquoOur client who is a thirdparty 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 unwarrantedrdquo Adv Shroff saidHearing the arguments the court rejected the prosecutionrsquos application for further police custody and granted judicial custodyThe FIR alleges that all accused acted in collusion to defraud the BMC of Rs 65 crore and further investigations are underwayatOptionskeyd0ddb8ef8f1a62a8cdd22fac27fc5ea7formatiframeheight90width728params