Mumbai Police’s EOW books ex-mayor and Shiv Sena UBT leader Kishori Pednekar, 2 senior civic officials in Covid-19 scam
Mumbai Police’s EOW books ex-mayor and Shiv Sena UBT leader Kishori Pednekar, 2 senior civic officials in Covid-19 scam
In the backdrop of BMC Covid-19 scam, the Mumbai police’s Economic Offences Wing (EOW) has booked ex-mayor and Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Kishori Pednekar, a former additional municipal commissioner and a former deputy municipal commissioner (purchase), and private contractor Vedanta Innotech, in an alleged scam involving the purchase of body bags at inflated rates amidst the Covid-19 pandemic.
According to senior EOW official, an amount involved in the alleged fraud has been mentioned at around Rs 60-70 lakh for now which may increase during the course of the investigation, a senior EOW official.
An earlier inquiry has reportedly revealed that the private company, which is under scanner, had allegedly supplied body bags for dead Covid-19 patients to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation at Rs 6,700 a piece, which was over three times
(Rs 1,500 per piece) of what it had levied other private hospitals or government authorities during the same period.
Pednekar and other senior civic officials have been booked under Sections 409 (criminal breach of trust by a public servant or by a banker, merchant, or agent), 420 (cheating), and 120B (criminal conspiracy).
A case has been registered at the Agripada police station and has been transferred to the EOW for further investigation.
This is the first FIR lodged by the EOW in its ongoing seven preliminary inquiries probing irregularities in the BMC during the Covid period and other irregularities in the functioning of the civic body.
The EOW last month initiated four independent preliminary inquiries (PEs) to probe into alleged financial irregularities linked to the purchase of body bags and remdesivir injections at inflated rates, setting up of oxygen plants and various other contracts awarded by the BMC to various contractors and suppliers during the pandemic.
The Special Investigation Team (SIT), which is already probing three separate PEs pertaining to various irregularities in the BMC’s functioning in the past few years based on the findings of the CAG’s audit report, will be investigating the latest FIR.
It is learnt that the EOW may soon file FIRs in the other PEs as well, police sources said. The other PEs are focusing on the dealings pertaining to the purchase of remdesivir, contracts pertaining to oxygen plants and various other expenses done at the jumbo centres.
Reportedly, remdesivir injections, used by the BMC-operated hospitals, were purchased at prices that are 25-30 per cent higher than the market rate. “The gross irregularities were pointed out but the same continued at the insistence of senior officials of the BMC,” an Enforcement Directorate (ED) source said.
Sources reveal that the PEs are based on the crucial information that the ED shared with the EOW recently.
The ED had stumbled upon the alleged financial irregularities while probing the irregularities linked to the Rs 32 crore Covid jumbo centre scam. ED officials have come across various other alleged irregularities estimated to be worth nearly Rs 4,000 crore. Since these alleged irregularities were not directly linked to the FIR in connection with Lifeline Management Service Pvt. Ltd., they shared them with the EOW.
The ED has already carried out multiple searches in four states pertaining to these financial irregularities but as they cannot independently initiate money laundering investigations into these irregularities, they have shared the information with the EOW.
Now that the EOW has registered an FIR in one case, the ED may soon lodge a fresh PMLA case based on this predicate offence (FIR) and probe the money laundering aspects of the body bag scam.
News Edit K.V.Raman
