Covid centres irregularities: Sujit Patkar remanded in EOW custody

Patkar was booked for allegedly awarding contracts illegally to their partnership firm – Lifeline Hospital Management Services (LHMS) – for providing medical manpower at two jumbo Covid centres in Dahisar and Worli

Mumbai: The Esplanade metropolitan magistrate court on Thursday remanded Sujit Patkar, a family friend of Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut, in Economic Offences Wing (EOW) custody for five days over the alleged irregularities in the jumbo Covid centres case.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) arrested Patkar, along with a civic official, on July 20, and the duo was lodged in Arthur Road jail. “We took Patkar in custody from Arthur Road jail and produced him before the Esplanade metropolitan magistrate court on Thursday. The court has remanded him to EOW custody for five days. Patkar was in judicial custody in the ED case,” a police officer from EOW said. (HT PHOTO)

Patkar was booked for allegedly awarding contracts illegally to their partnership firm – Lifeline Hospital Management Services (LHMS) – for providing medical manpower at two jumbo Covid centres in Dahisar and Worli.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) arrested Patkar, along with a civic official, on July 20, and the duo was lodged in Arthur Road jail. “We took Patkar in custody from Arthur Road jail and produced him before the Esplanade metropolitan magistrate court on Thursday. The court has remanded him to EOW custody for five days. Patkar was in judicial custody in the ED case,” a police officer from EOW said.

The development came around a week after a sessions court rejected Patkar’s anticipatory bail plea. The EOW opposed the bail plea, claiming Patkar had allegedly secured the tender without following due procedure using his influence and personal relations.

Patkar, on the other hand, claimed that the matter was probed at the behest of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Kirit Somaiya, who had an axe to grind with his political rivals. He added that a committee of experts investigated the alleged wrongdoings of LHMS, and it did not find anything wrong with awarding the work to them.

In August last year, Somaiya filed a complaint against four partners of LHMS, including Patkar, at the Azad Maidan police station. In the FIR, he had alleged that the firm was given the contract though it did not have any experience in providing health or medical services. He added that the firm forged documents, including its partnership deed, to acquire the contract, causing a loss of ₹38 crore to the BMC.

Somaiya also alleged that Pune Metropolitan Region Development Authority blacklisted the firm from providing medical services, however, LHMS concealed this from the BMC and managed to get the contract for providing services in jumbo centres.

In October 2022, the investigation of the case was transferred to the EOW, who had earlier arrested two people in connection with the alleged scam – Rajiv aka Raju Salunke, 48, and Sunil aka Bala Kadam, 58. Among the others named in the FIR were Dr Hemant Ramsharan Gupta, Sanjay Madanlal Shah, and Raju Nandkumar Salunkhe.