BMC contractor booked for using bogus documents to bid for ₹87 cr Mithi desilting contract

Kanjur Marg police case: Civic contractor allegedly submitted forged documents to secure ₹87 crore desilting project for Mithi River by BMC in 2023-24.

MUMBAI: The Kanjur Marg police have registered a case against a civic contractor for allegedly submitting forged documents to get the desilting of Mithi worth ₹87 crore for which tenders were invited by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) in 2023-24. The police said the contractor submitted the documents purportedly from a Netherlands-based company about being their authorised agent in the country, but when BMC wrote to the foreign company, it denied having any such relationship with the bidder.

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According to the authorities, the offence was registered after several months, although the written complaint was registered by Prashant Ramgude, deputy chief engineer, who works as the authorised officer for the Mithi river development project in October 2023.

“The civic body had invited bids for 2023 to 2024 to desilt Mithi river, and the contract was worth ₹87 crore. The bidders were required to have at least one year of experience to handle silt-pushing machines and handling multipurpose amphibious machines,” said the police officer.

The documents related to Maindeep Enterprises, which were filed in the tender, were obtained by one advocate, Prathamesh Chhajed, under Right to Information (RTI) and later lodged a complaint with the deputy chief engineer that several documents submitted by Maindeep Enterprises relating to Cleantec Infra from Navi Mumbai were bogus.

To ascertain the genuineness of the documents submitted by the bidder, the civic body then wrote to the Netherlands-based company whose letter Maindeep Enterprises had submitted along with its bid, claiming that Cleantec was their authorised partner in the country.

The Netherlands-based company informed the BMC via email that they had not appointed anyone in India and that the submitted letter was fake.

Accordingly, the civic body in March 2023, gave a show-cause notice to Maindeep Enterprises when it did not get any satisfactory answer, it had even given an application to the local police to register an offence for forgery. Sources said the civic body had debarred the contractor for three years for submitting forged documents, and they are verifying it.

In 2018, the police learnt that Maindeep Enterprises was blacklisted for five years for shoddy road work. However, the civic body reduced the term later to two years. The company had contracts for desilting the Mithi River in 2021 and 2022. MLC Anil Parab had raked up the issue in the legislative assembly.

“We have registered the offence and will inquire into everything and have called for various documents,” said a police officer. The case has been registered against the contractor under sections 420 (cheating), 465 (forgery), 468 (forgery for cheating) and 471 (using as genuine a forged document of the Indian Penal Code.