Covid centres case: Blew up ₹25 L in dance bars, suspect tells ED

MUMBAI: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) is ascertaining the claims of a suspect in the Covid centres irregularities, who told them that he spent the alleged proceeds of crime, around ₹25 lakh, at dance bars across Mumbai and Thane

MUMBAI: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) is ascertaining the claims of a suspect in the Covid centres irregularities, who told them that he spent the alleged proceeds of crime, around ₹25 lakh, at dance bars across Mumbai and Thane. According to ED sources, the suspect, who is a civic employee, told the investigators that going to these night clubs was his only addiction.

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The suspect allegedly received the funds in lieu of his connivance in Covid centre irregularities, including non-compliance with the terms of the civic contracts. When the agency asked the suspect about the whereabouts of the ₹25 lakh that allegedly came to him as bribes, he claimed to have spent it all at dance bars in the city and the neighbouring areas.

The agency is verifying if the suspect used post-dated cheques at such places in lieu of accessing cash to spend, apart from the cash he may have carried on his own. To gather evidence in the case, it is also compiling a list of places where the accused purportedly spent the funds.

The accused firm, Lifeline Hospital Management Services (LHMS), had bagged the contract to supply medical manpower to Jumbo Covid Centres in Worli and Dahisar. The firm is accused of receiving around ₹31.84 crore from the BMC as part of the manpower contract, even though between 50 and 60% of the medical staff at the centres for which it had billed the civic body was non-existent, as per the ED probe findings.

The probe also found that ₹22 crore of the funds received from the BMC was diverted to certain individuals and to shell firms and not spent on the purposes specified by the contract. The agency is trying to establish the end recipients of such funds, sources said.

The investigation allegedly revealed huge discrepancies in the attendance sheets and documents submitted to the BMC by the staff of the firm. Letters were issued to the doctors, nurses and staff reportedly engaged in Jumbo Covid Centres of LHMS but most of these letters were allegedly returned undelivered to the postal authorities.

Some of the doctors/staff submitted that they had never worked in these Covid centres but had appeared for the interviews and submitted their personal records to the firm—however, their attendance was shown by the firm in bills to the BMC, displaying them as regular employees providing their services at the two Covid centres. The manipulations were allegedly aimed at projecting that the doctor-to-patient ratio was being maintained as per the specifications mentioned in the Expression of Interest as part of the contract, sources said.

The ED case is based on an FIR the Azad Maidan police registered in August 2022 against the partners of LHMS. According to the FIR, the company had submitted allegedly forged documents to the BMC, and it had no experience in providing manpower at a medical facility. Despite this, the BMC awarded the company the contract. It was also alleged that the firm was unregistered, and the partnership deed submitted to the BMC was dubious.

In their defence, civic officials claimed that the BMC had no mechanism during the pandemic to verify documents submitted by various firms bidding for contracts to provide manpower at Jumbo Centres or, indeed, for any other tender. The agency later widened its probe to include the BMC’s ₹4,000-crore pandemic contracts.