The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has raided more than 15 locations across Mumbai since Wednesday, including residences of IAS officer Sanjeev Jaiswal, Yuva Sena secretary Suraj Chavan, and Sujit Patkar, a close aide of Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut.
These raids pertain to the so-called Covid jumbo centre scam. It has been alleged by the present government that the then Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena, which was part of the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA), is involved in this Rs 12,024 crore scam pertaining to setting up of Covid jumbo centres in Mumbai and Pune.
“Raids are being conducted at locations pertaining to suppliers and contractors, who were providing materials and setting up of the Covid centres,” said a senior officer from ED.
After day-long searches, the agency issued a summons to Jaiswal to appear before it. On January 16, Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation chief Iqbal Chahal was questioned for four hours by ED in the same case.
On Thursday, officers from the central agency also visited the BMC headquarters and the corporation’s Central Purchase Department (CPD) to examine purchase documents related to the contract awarded and payment made during the Covid-19 pandemic.
What is the case about?
Maharashtra chief minister Eknath Shinde this week announced that he is setting up a special investigation team (SIT) to probe the case, and it will be led by Mumbai police commissioner Vivek Phansalkar.
BJP leader Kirit Somaiya has alleged that the scam connected to a field hospital contract is worth more than Rs 100 crore. However, Mumbai police’s Economic Offences Wing (EOW) has pegged it at Rs 38 crore.
A complaint was registered by Somaiya at Azad Maidan police station last year in an alleged scam related to Covid jumbo centres. The ED’s investigation into money laundering is based on this case, which was transferred to the EOW in October 2022. In the complaint, it has been said that contracts were given at exorbitant rates to contractors who were linked to Shiv Sena leaders but had no prior experience in the healthcare service sector.
The FIR also alleges that they obtained contracts for Covid-19 jumbo centres at NSEL, Worli, Mulund, Dahisar (in Mumbai), and Pune by forging documents.
A document found by the ED during a raid on Sujit Patkar’s house showed that he had signed an agreement with the BMC to manage Covid field hospitals around a year after getting the contract and receiving Rs 32 crore into his company’s account.
After getting the BMC contract through his unregistered company, Patkar allegedly handed over the work to a doctor and signed an agreement to manage the field hospitals in the company’s name. Somaiya had also alleged that the agreement for these contracts was signed a year after getting the work.
Shinde’s attack, Uddhav’s counterattack
A day after Eknath Shinde announced that the state government was setting up an SIT to investigate the alleged scam, former chief minister Uddhav Thackeray said that on July 1 there will be a mega rally to the BMC headquarters led by Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Aaditya Thackeray against a more than Rs 900 crore scam by the BMC after the current government came to power.
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