ED to quiz BMC’s ex-AMC on Jumbo Covid Centre contracts

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) will record the statement of Sanjeev Jaiswal, former additional municipal commissioner of BMC, in connection with its investigation into the civic body's pandemic-related contracts. The agency is likely to seek information about a ₹38 crore contract awarded to Lifeline Hospital Management Services (LHMS) and the alleged diversion of funds to shell firms. Jaiswal claims he had no connection with the purchases made by BMC.

MUMBAI: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) will on Friday record the statement of the BMC’s then additional municipal commissioner, Sanjeev Jaiswal, in connection with its investigation into the civic body’s ₹4,000-crore expenditure on pandemic-related contracts. The agency had earlier called in Jaiswal twice for questioning, but he had failed to appear.

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Last Wednesday, the ED conducted searches at 15-odd locations, including Jaiswal’s premises. During the pandemic, Jaiswal played the role of a coordinator between several agencies involved in setting up jumbo covid centres in the city. 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.

The agency is likely to seek information with regard to the BMC’s award of a ₹38-crore contract to a private firm, Lifeline Hospital Management Services (LHMS), from Jaiswal, as he was one of the senior officials who were part of the decision-making chain then. The ED case probe had begun with a First Information Report (FIR) registered in August 2022 against the partners of LHMS.

According to the FIR, the company, which was unregistered, allegedly submitted forged documents to the BMC, and had neither adequate staff nor experience in providing manpower at a medical facility. Lifeline 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 had been made.

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

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 centres or for any other tender, ED officials said.

While Jaiswal was unavailable for comment, a source close to him had earlier told HT that he had no connection with any of the purchases made by the BMC. “Also, it was the municipal commissioner’s decision to outsource manpower for the covid centres since the BMC totally lacked its own then,” the source claimed. “The decision to give the contract to Lifeline was a collective one, and Mr Jaiswal was just one of the signatories.”