Rs 65 cr Mithi river desilting scam: Contractor held in August last year gets bail

Mumbai, Mar 5 (PTI) A court here has granted bail to a contractor arrested in the Rs 65 crore Mithi river desilting scam stating he was not part of the conspiracy hatched by the co-accused and civic body officials.

Shersingh Rathod (52), arrested by Mumbai police's Economic Offences Wing (EOW) in August last year, is accused of allegedly creating fake MoUs and receiving Rs 29.62 crore through bogus bills.

As per the prosecution, Rathod, along with co-accused-Ketan Kadam, chief executive officer of firm Virgo Specialties, and Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation officials, hatched a conspiracy regarding the use of Stilt Pushing Pontoon Machine (SPPM) and Multipurpose Amphibious Pontoon Machine (MAPM)/Truxor) in the work of removing silt from Mithi river.

Their act caused a wrongful loss of Rs 65 crore to the BMC, as per the EOW.

The probe agency's specific charges against Rathod included executing a hire agreement for pontoon machines that Virgo Specialties did not actually possess and submitting forged land-use agreements, including one bearing the signature of a deceased landowner.

Rathod's bail plea was allowed by Additional Sessions Judge N G Shukla last month.

In the reasoned order, available on Thursday, the court found that Rathod's company (Maindeep Enterprises) completed the work and all the bills were paid to his firm after verification of documents by civic officials.

Whether the log sheets and other documents submitted by the applicant are forged is a matter of trial, the court said in its order.

"Considering the material aspect that the applicant was not part of conspiracy and he had no dishonest intention in obtaining MOUs from the land owners, I find there is no prima facie case for denying bail to the applicant," the court ruled. PTI AVI BNM