Pay-and-park scam: Officials lose bounced cheques

MUMBAI: In a major setback to the investigating officers probing the Rs3.87 crore pay-and-park scam in south Mumbai, including bounced cheques of over Rs40 lakh

MUMBAI: In a major setback to the investigating officers probing the Rs3.87 crore pay-and-park scam in south Mumbai, including bounced cheques of over Rs40 lakh submitted by the contractors to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), last week it came to the fore that the cheques have gone missing.

HT Image

Sources claimed these cheques were submitted by the contractors against the licence fee and the bank authorities had returned them to the A-ward (Colaba, CST) authorities, who are now believed to have misplaced them. These cheques are a vital piece of evidence to nail the contractors and in their absence, the accused may walk scot-free.

In June, the BMC had registered a first information report (FIR) against two contractors at the MRA Marg police station and blacklisted them. These contractors were managing parking lots in Colaba and CST for the last two years.

A senior BMC officer, requesting anonymity, said, “Looks like it has been done deliberately to shield the contractors. The cheques were the main evidence and now it could post difficulty in fixing responsibility of the civic officials involved in the scam. The BMC incurred a loss of Rs3.87crore in the scam.”

The BMC has suspended a sub-engineer for his in involvement in the scam. With the cheques missing, civic officials are now zeroing in on the banks used for executing the transaction and their branches from where the bounced cheques were returned.