Jumbo Covid-19 centres scam: ED raids premises linked to close aides of Sanjay Raut, Aaditya

ED conducts searches at 15 locations in Mumbai in its money-laundering probe into alleged irregularities in BMC awarding contract for Covid-19 centres to Lifeline Hospital Management Services. Partners of the company, including a family friend of Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut and a close aide of Aaditya Thackeray, are among those whose premises were raided. The case is based on an FIR registered against the company's partners in August 2022 for allegedly submitting forged documents to the BMC and having no experience in providing medical services. The company had received a contract worth ?38 crore from BMC.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Wednesday carried out searches at 15 locations in the city and adjoining areas as part of its money-laundering probe into the alleged irregularities in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) awarding a contract for two jumbo Covid-19 centres in 2020.

Mumbai, India - June 21, 2023: ED raid on Sujeet Patkars residence at Sumit Artista building, Kalina, Sanracruz in Mumbai, India, on Wednesday, June 21, 2023. (Photo by Satish Bate/ Hindustan Times) (Hindustan Times)

The firm under the scanner is Lifeline Hospital Management Services that had bagged a ₹38-crore bid to set up two facilities at Dahisar and Worli.

Among those whose premises were raided were businessman Sujit Patkar, a family friend of Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut, Suraj Chavan, party secretary and close aide of Aaditya Thackeray, Sanjeev Jaiswal, then additional municipal commissioner, BMC, Ramakant Biradar, deputy municipal commissioner, and a civic health officer, agency sources said.

The searches were carried out at houses and offices in Bandra East, Santacruz, Worli and Chembur, the sources said, adding 14 of the locations were in the city.

The ED case is based on an FIR the Azad Maidan police had registered in August 2022 against partners of Lifeline Hospital Management Services. Patkar is one of its partners, the sources said.

According to the FIR that was based on a complaint filed by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Kirit Somaiya, the company had submitted forged documents to the BMC, and it had no experience in providing manpower at a medical facility.

Somaiya alleged that after a journalist had died of Covid-19 at a jumbo centre run by the firm in 2020 in Pune, the Pune Municipal Corporation and the Pune Metropolitan Region Development Authority (PMRDA) jointly ordered a probe.

The PMRDA even seized the security amount of ₹25 lakh deposited by the firm, the complaint said, adding the inquiry revealed that the company had no experience in providing medical services nor did it have adequate staff. Thereafter, the PMRDA issued a direction blacklisting Lifeline, Somaiya added.

However, the BMC awarded the same company a contract worth ₹38 crore of which a payment of ₹32 crore had been made, the FIR said. The BJP leader further claimed that the firm was unregistered, and the partnership deed submitted to the BMC was dubious.

The agency had on January 16 recorded the statement of municipal commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal. Chahal claimed that the BMC had no mechanism at the time to verify documents submitted by various firms bidding for contracts to provide manpower at jumbo centres or, indeed, for any other tender, ED officials said.