Mithi River desilting scam: EOW arrests two intermediaries

Ketan Kadam is the director of Woder India LLP, a Mumbai-based company that provides desilting services, while Jayesh Joshi is associated with Virgo Specialties Pvt Ltd, a Mumbai-based industrial product manufacturer

MUMBAI: A day after booking 13 people in connection with the alleged ₹65-crore Mithi River desilting scam, the Mumbai police’s Economic Offences Wing (EOW) has arrested two of the accused—Ketan Kadam and Jayesh Joshi—who allegedly acted as intermediaries in the supply of equipment.

Mumbai, India - May 7, 2025:EOW Dept of Mumbai Police arrested 2 accused Ketan Kadam and Jay Joshi Mithi River Desilting case and produced  at  Esplanade  Court, in Mumbai, India, on Wednesday, May 7, 2025. (Photo by Anshuman Poyrekar/ Hindustan Times) (Hindustan Times)

Kadam is the director of Woder India LLP, a Mumbai-based company that provides desilting services, while Joshi is associated with Virgo Specialties Pvt Ltd, a Mumbai-based industrial product manufacturer.

According to the police, the two arrested accused acted as intermediaries in renting out silt pusher machines and multipurpose amphibious dredging equipment supplied by Kochi-based Matprop Technical Services Pvt Ltd. They allegedly charged the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) an inflated amount for the equipment, in connivance with officials from the civic body’s storm water drains department (SWD) and Matprop executives.

“We have arrested Jay Joshi, 49, of Virgo Specialties Pvt Ltd and Ketan Kadam, 50, of Woder India LLP. They were produced before a court that has sent them to police custody till May 13,” said a police officer, who requested anonymity.

The EOW told the court it had found several BMC documents in the accused’s mobile phones, along with entries related to cash received from various contractors and copies of tenders related to the Mithi River desilting work, for which they need to be questioned.

“We had called them for questioning after registering the offence on Tuesday morning. When we found their answers were unsatisfactory, they were placed under arrest on Tuesday night,” said a police officer.

HT reached out to Woder India and Virgo Specialties for a reaction, but didn’t get a response till the time of going to press.

On Tuesday, the EOW booked 13 people, including three civic officials, for allegedly causing the BMC a loss of ₹65.54 crore in connection with the Mithi River desilting project.

According to the EOW, the accused BMC officials tailored the tender for the desilting contract to benefit machinery supplier Matprop, whose director, Dipak Mohan, has also been booked in the case. When contacted by HT on Tuesday, Mohan denied that he or his company were involved in the fraud.

BMC officials visited Kochi in October 2020 to purchase desilting equipment from Matprop, the police officer said. The company allegedly quoted ₹3 crore for silt pusher machines and ₹2 crore for multipurpose amphibious dredging equipment.

However, instead of purchasing the machines, the BMC decided to pay the contractors on a per-metric-tonne basis for the silt and dredge removed from the river, officials said. The accused BMC officials then floated tenders with the same specifications that Matprop’s equipment had, so that any contractor would be required to buy or hire only its machines, according to the investigation.

“The BMC’s tender had a mention of the specific machines that should be available to remove the silt, giving a monopoly to Matprop Technical Services, which was the only manufacturer of the machines in the country,” said the police officer.

“When the contractors approached the company, they directed the contractors to Joshi and Kadam, who, in connivance with Matprop director Dipak Mohan, sold the equipment to contractor Bhupendra Purohit’s Tridev Infrastructure,” added the police officer.

Purohit’s relatives’ firm, Tanisha Enterprises, was then awarded BMC contracts in 2021-22, while his own company, Tridev Infrastructure, won contracts in 2023-24 and 2024-25, the officer said. The rent to be paid by the companies for the machines was decided at ₹4 crore for two years, when the price of the machines was ₹5 crore, the officer added. Purohit is also an accused in the case.

“To ensure the contractor did not suffer losses, the rate for the silt was decided at ₹1,609 per metric tonne (MT), which was later increased to ₹2,193 per MT for silt pushing machines and ₹2,366 per MT for multipurpose amphibious dredging equipment,” said the police officer.

After the BMC’s vigilance department objected to the rates, they were brought back to ₹1,609 per tonne, the officer said. However, despite this, payments were made at the inflated rate to contractors, causing a loss of ₹17 crore to the civic body, the officer added.

No scientific valuation was done of the amount of mud in the Mithi River, according to the EOW. Every year, to benefit the contractors and BMC officials involved in the scam, the amount of mud removed was increased on paper to cheat the civic body, officials said.