EOW interrogates joint municipal commissioner in jumbo Covid centres scam

Mumbai: The joint municipal commissioner of Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) was recently interrogated by the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Mumbai police in connection with the jumbo Covid centres scam, in which Sujit Patkar, a close aide of Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut, is an accused

Mumbai: The joint municipal commissioner of Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) was recently interrogated by the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Mumbai police in connection with the jumbo Covid centres scam, in which Sujit Patkar, a close aide of Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut, is an accused.

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A police officer said that joint municipal commissioner (improvement) Ramesh Pawar, who was then deputy municipal commissioner, was interrogated by EOW officials for the entire day.

“The questioning revolved around finding out under whose influence Patkar’s firm, Lifeline Hospital Management Services (LHMS), was allowed to take part in the contract allotment process despite not having any past experience in providing healthcare or medical services. Officers also sought answers to what criteria was followed while awarding the contract to the firm? Pawar’s interrogation has yielded results and may lead to the arrest of other accused in the case soon,” said one of the officers.

The officer clarified that Pawar was not a suspect in the case and given the amount of information he had shared with the police during the probe, he might be treated as a key witness in the case.

The agency had already arrested two people in connection with the alleged scam – Rajiv aka Raju Salunke, 48, and Sunil aka Bala Kadam, 58, ten days ago, and is likely to make more arrests soon. Both Salunkhe and Kadam, are in judicial custody.

Salunkhe is one of the partners in the firm. EOW’s probe has revealed that around ₹82 lakh was transferred from Salunkhe’s bank account to Kadam’s. Besides this, amounts of ₹87.31 lakh and ₹45 lakh were also transferred from the bank account of LHMS to Kadam’s bank account on two different occasions. When Kadam was questioned about the transaction of ₹87.31 lakh, he claimed it was used for LHMS’s work, but failed to provide any documents supporting his claims, another EOW source said.

The source added that when asked about the transaction of ₹45 lakh, Kadam claimed that it was used to make the payment of the company’s office’s rent. However, the landlord of the office told EOW that he has not received any money from Kadam.

In January this year, the EOW sent notices to senior officials of the BMC seeking details pertaining to eligibility, sanctioning of contracts and payments to Lifeline Hospital Management Services, which was contracted by the BMC to set up Covid jumbo centres in Mumbai during the pandemic.

The FIR in the alleged scam was registered in August last year based on a complaint lodged by BJP leader Kirit Somaiya against four partners of Lifeline Hospital Management Services including Sujit Mukund Patkar, at the Azad Maidan police station.

Among the others named in the FIR were Dr Hemant Ramsharan Gupta, Sanjay Madanlal Shah, and Raju Nandkumar Salunkhe. In October 2022, the investigation of the case was transferred to the EOW.

Somaiya had alleged that the firm was given the contract though it did not have any experience in providing health or medical services. The firm got the contract based on forged documents, including its partnership deed.

He also alleged the firm was blacklisted by the Pune Metropolitan Region Development Authority for providing medical services, but the firm concealed this fact from the BMC and managed to get the contract for providing services in jumbo centres.