Covid scam: ED questions former BMC officer for over 10 hours

The agency is also probing ₹5 crore fixed deposit in the bank account of Jaiswal’s wife that was opened during the pandemic, in 2020, and asked him to explain its antecedents, including the source of the funds, ED sources said

MUMBAI: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Friday questioned former additional municipal commissioner Sanjeev Jaiswal for over 10 hours in connection with a money laundering probe into the civic body’s ₹4,000-crore expenditure on pandemic-related contracts, including a ₹38-crore contract pertaining to jumbo Covid centres given to a private firm.

Covid scam: ED questions former BMC officer for over 10 hours

The agency is also probing ₹5 crore fixed deposit in the bank account of Jaiswal’s wife that was opened during the pandemic, in 2020, and asked him to explain its antecedents, including the source of the funds, ED sources said.

When asked about the FD and other allegations, Jaiswal told HT, “This is totally baseless and not a factual reality. You can check the ITR as everything is in public domain and whatever she has, came to her primarily as inheritance from her mother, as per her will as she is a patient of Parkinson’s, much before 2020 as alleged. I have given all the details to the ED, so I have nothing to say further.”

The IAS officer arrived at the ED office in south Mumbai at around 11.30 am on Friday, after previously failing to turn up twice.

Sources said Jaiswal was posed queries about his role regarding the BMC’s award of the ₹38-crore contract to Lifeline Hospital Management Services (LHMS) as he was one of the senior officials, who were part of the decision-making process.

Denying any role in the alleged wrongdoings, Jaiswal clarified that the decision to award the contract to LHMS was a collective one and he was just one of the signatories, ED sources said. The agency will be questioning one of the LHMS partners, businessman Sujit Patkar, however, he could not be traced at his known address, the sources added.

The agency has recorded statements of the firm’s three other partners, who may be called again for clarifications if required, sources said.

The ED, however, is verifying if Jaiswal had any further role in the award of the contract and if he could be a beneficiary, the agency sources claimed.

“Jaiswal was also part of the tender committee related to the contract and was part of the process to lay down the conditions. It is being verified if he has any link with the proceeds of the contract,” the official said.

The ED probe had begun with an FIR registered by the Azad Maidan police in August 2022 against the LHMS partners. According to the FIR, the company, which was unregistered, submitted forged documents to the BMC, and had neither adequate staff nor experience in providing manpower at a medical facility. It was blacklisted by the Pune Metropolitan Region Development Authority, but the BMC still awarded it a contract worth ₹38 crore, of which a payment of ₹30 crore was made.

The ED probe has also established that of this ₹30 crore, around ₹22 crore was diverted to “certain shell firms and to the firm’s partners”, sources claimed. The agency is also verifying other allegations vis-à-vis the jumbo centres.

During the pandemic, Jaiswal played the role of a coordinator between several agencies involved in setting up the jumbo centers. He was, however, not associated with any civic purchase/acquisition via the BMC’s central purchase department, as he was not the latter’s administrative head, ED sources said.

Last Wednesday, the ED conducted searches at 15 locations, including Jaiswal’s premises. The ED had recovered documents that helped it identify 50-odd immovable properties across the state worth around ₹150 crore.

The agency also came across fixed deposits/investments worth ₹15 crore belonging to Jaiswal’s wife, which were stated to be ‘gifted’ to her by her mother. Jaiswal had maintained that he had on his own given details of his and his wife’s 24 assets, to the tune of ₹34 crore, which were part of his income tax returns, to the ED and that up to 80% of them were “inherited”.

Earlier, the agency had on January 16 recorded the statement of municipal commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal, who 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 centers or for any other tender, the ED officials said.