Bombay high court asks for charge sheet in BMC desilting scam in four weeks

Mumbai city news: The court denied the EOW’s request for additional time to file the charge sheet saying that an FIR had been filed in the case over a year ago and both the EOW and the civic body had already taken much time to identify the culprits involved in the scam.

The Bombay high court on Tuesday asked the Mumbai Economic Offences Wing (EOW) on Tuesday to file a charge sheet against Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) officials and others accused in the BMC desilting scam within four weeks.

In an affidavit filed in HC on Tuesday, the EOW had said that they were still probing the “roles and responsibilities of BMC engineers in the case” and that the probe was of a “technical nature.”(HT)

The court denied the EOW’s request for additional time to file the charge sheet saying that an FIR had been filed in the case over a year ago and both the EOW and the civic body had already taken much time to identify the culprits involved in the scam. So, there was no reason for any delay in filing the charge sheet.

In an affidavit filed in HC on Tuesday, the EOW had said that they were still probing the “roles and responsibilities of BMC engineers in the case” and that the probe was of a “technical nature.” The police said that it also had to “look into and collect documentary evidence,” and so be granted more time.

The directions came while the court was hearing a Public Interest Litigation filed by Vivekanand Gupta through his counsel Sushant Chavan, highlighting irregularities by the BMC in construction of roads and de-silting of drains between 2013 and 2016.

In June 2015, Mumbai had witnessed massive flooding and waterlogging after heavy showers. This was despite the BMC’s claims of having completed the de-silting and road repair work before the rains.

At that time, the BMC commissioner had announced a five-member team to probe the incident and to verify the corporation’s claims of having completed the pre-monsoon projects. The preliminary probe report had revealed irregularities in such projects.

In the last hearing, the EOW submitted a sealed report of its “interim probe”. It had also informed the court that 24 people had already been arrested in the case and “further investigations were on.”

The BMC counsel submitted that the corporation had already suspended 14 of its staff members for their roles in the scam.