Mithi desilting scam: Two more contractors held; 'prepared fake MoUs for muck dumping ground'

Mumbai, Dec 10 (PTI) The Economic Offences Wing of Mumbai Police arrested two more contractors in connection with the alleged Rs 65-crore Mithi river desilting scam on Wednesday, taking the total number of arrests in the case so far to five, officials said.

The alleged scam involves some Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) officials who tailored a tender for a desilting contract in such a way that it benefited a particular supplier of machinery needed for the work and inflated bills for silt. Contractors also generated fraudulent bills for transporting sludge out of Mumbai, and civic officials sanctioned them.

The two contractors arrested on Wednesday allegedly conspired with BMC officers, middlemen, and contractors to prepare fake MoUs of the dumping ground between 2013 and 2023. They are identified as Sunil Upadhyay (54) and Mahesh Purohit (48), a police official said.

Upadhyay is a director at SNB Infrastructure, and Purohit is a partner of MB Brothers' firm, he said.

Upadhyay was arrested in Dadar, and Purohit in Deonar. A local court remanded them to police custody till December 16.

The EOW earlier had arrested middleman Ketan Kadam, Jai Joshi, and contractor Shersingh Rathore.

A special investigation team (SIT) of officials from the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) registered a First Information Report (FIR) against 13 persons, including five contractors, three middlemen, and two company officials, at Azad Maidan police station in May. PTI DC NSK