Body bags purchase: ED summons ex-mayor Kishori Pednekar

The Enforcement Directorate has summoned former Mumbai mayor Kishori Pednekar for questioning in relation to alleged irregularities in the purchase of body bags for COVID-19 victims by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation. The agency is investigating allegations of money laundering and is trying to collect information about the circumstances surrounding the contract. So far, no monetary transactions involving Pednekar have been found.

MUMBAI: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has summoned former mayor Kishori Pednekar – a Uddhav Thackeray loyalist – on January 25, as part of its alleged money-laundering probe relating to alleged irregularities in purchasing of body bags by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) for COVID-19 victims, an ED official said.

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This is the second time that ED has summoned Pednekar for questioning. In November, she was questioned for around six hours and her statements were recorded. The agency is trying to collect information about the circumstances under which the body bag contract was given to the supplier from Aurangabad and body bags were purchased for Covid-19 victims allegedly at highly inflated rates.

It was suspected that the contract was given on the instructions of Pednekar and the anti-money laundering agency is probing the allegation.

ED officials confirmed that the former mayor had denied the allegations earlier and said that so far, they have not come across any monetary transaction involving Pednekar in the case.

In June, ED recovered several documents during searches at around 15 locations in the city as part of its probe into Covid-related civic contracts worth ₹4,000 crore including the contracts related to body bags purchases.

The documents revealed that the BMC allegedly purchased body bags at two different rates within a year from the supplier at around ₹6,800 a piece, inclusive of taxes, even though the same entity was selling the bags to other government entities for ₹2,000 a piece, ED sources said. The agency’s money laundering case is based on the First Information Report registered in August this year by the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Mumbai police against Pednekar, two senior BMC officials - a former additional municipal commissioner (projects), and a deputy municipal commissioner who headed the civic Central Purchase Department, and the contractor. The EOW had registered the case based on a complaint filed by a BJP leader.