Mithi river desilting fraud: EOW books 13 people, including three BMC officials

A preliminary inquiry has revealed several irregularities in executing contracts for the desilting work from 2013 to 2023

MUMBAI: The Mumbai police’s Economic Offences Wing (EOW) has registered an FIR against 13 people, including three civic officials, for allegedly causing a loss of ₹65.54 crore to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) in connection with desilting the Mithi river.

Mumbai, India. May 06, 2025: A general view of the Mithi River at BKC, Bandra area of Mumbai. The Economic Offences Wing of Mumbai police registered a case against BMC officials and the Contractor in the Mithi River cleaning scam. May 06, 2025. (Photo by Raju Shinde/HT Photo) (Hindustan Times)

A preliminary inquiry conducted by a special investigation team (SIT) headed by assistant commissioner of police (ACP) Shyam Shinde of the EOW has revealed several irregularities in executing contracts for the desilting work from 2013 to 2023, officials said.

For instance, nothing was found on the land leased by BMC contractors to dump silt and debris removed from the Mithi river. Irregularities were also noted in the renting of silt pusher machines and dredging equipment, officials added.

After registering the offence at the Azad Maidan police station, EOW officials carried out searches at seven places in Mumbai—mainly at the residences and offices of the accused civic officials and contractors, officials said.

The accused

The EOW registered the case based on a complaint lodged by its officer, police inspector Bilal Shaikh, who was part of the SIT under ACP Shinde. The three civic officers who were booked are from the BMC’s storm water drains (SWD) department deputed for the Mithi River Development Project: deputy chief engineers Prashant Ramgude and Ganesh Bendre, and civic official Tayshete. BMC commissioner Bhushan Gagrani did not respond to HT’s request for comment.

The FIR also names senior executives of the contractors involved in the desilting project, such as Matprop Technical Services, Virgo Specialties, Woder India, Acute Designs, Kailash Construction Company, NA Constructions, Nikhil Constructions and JRS Infrastructure.

The accused were booked under sections 406 (criminal breach of trust), 420 (cheating), 465 (forgery) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code.

Deepak Mohan, director of Kochi-based Matprop Technical Services, who has been named in the FIR, denied that he or his company was involved in the fraud. “We had written to the BMC, after which their team visited us and saw our machinery and canal cleaning work of around 60 km. They had liked it. Later, some contractors contacted us and, through our sub-dealer, we supplied machinery to them. We are in no way involved in the fraud and have done legal business,” he said.

HT reached out to the other companies whose executives were named in the FIR for a reaction, but didn’t get a response till the time of going to press.

What the probe revealed

According to the FIR, the SIT found during its investigation that several Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) executed regarding land rented for silt and debris dumping were fake.

“Some of the landowners with whom the MoUs were signed had died,” said a police officer. “In at least nine cases, the owners informed the police that they had not executed any such MoUs with the contractors engaged for the river development project. The civic body was cheated to the tune of ₹45 crore with respect to these nine spots from 2013 to 2021.”

The FIR added that Matprop Technical Services, a Kochi-based company, had approached the BMC, saying it was involved in the Yamuna river clean-up project. It offered to sell to the BMC silt pusher machines, costing around ₹3 crore a piece, and multipurpose amphibious dredging equipment, costing around ₹2 crore.

A civic team from the SWD department visited the company and its Yamuna site in 2020. However, instead of purchasing the machines, the civic officials decided to rent them through contractors. Accordingly, they added a condition in the tender to that effect, said the police officer.

Besides, the officer said, the per-tonne rate of the silt removed from the Mithi river slowly increased after the contracts were awarded. The rates were brought down only when the BMC’s vigilance department objected to the mid-term hike in rates. But by then, the civic body had already lost ₹17 crore because of the unduly enhanced rates, the officer added.

“Every year, from 2021 to 2025, the civic body kept increasing the amount of silt to be removed from the Mithi river to benefit the contractors and the civic officials in connivance with whom the racket was run,” said an EOW officer. “There was no scientific evaluation done of how much silt was there in the Mithi river,” he added.

The EOW’s preliminary inquiry also revealed that the civic staff did not record the weight being carried by the dumpers that came to the weighbridge, which was necessary. Besides, several log sheets were found to be signed by a secondary engineer and a deputy engineer attached to the SWD department, although they were not authorised to do so.

“This indicates that the said log sheets and documents are fabricated and the municipal officials have made the payments based on such documents,” said the officer, adding that this needs to be investigated further.

The alleged scam took place from 2013 to 2023, officials said. The SIT was constituted in August 2024 after Bharatiya Janata Party leaders Prasad Lad and Pravin Darekar raised questions in the state legislative council about alleged irregularities in desilting the 17.84-km-long river.

The BMC was assigned the responsibility to desilt around 11.84 km from the river’s origin in Powai to Kurla, while the remaining 6 km from Kurla to Mahim was assigned to the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority. This was the sixth SIT formed by the EOW to investigate irregularities in civil contracts.