The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Wednesday carried out searches at the premises of persons said to be close to the Shiv Sena (UBT), an IAS officer, and other local officers for their alleged involvement in the BMC covid scam.
Of the searches carried out at 15 locations, sources said the sleuths landed at the premises of Suraj Chavan, allegedly a close associate of Aaditya Thackeray, in Chembur, and Sujit Parkar, suspected to have proximity to Maharastra regional party leader Sanjay Raut. Patkar and three others fraudulently managed to get contracts for managing hospitals during Covid pandemic.
The ED took up the money laundering investigation from the Azad Maidan police station in Mumbai, which had registered a forgery case against Lifeline Hospital Management Services firm, Patkar, and his three partners in August last year. The local police alleged in the FIR that the hospital management firm submitted an alleged fake partnership deed to the BMC in June 2020 and obtained contracts for jumbo COVID-19 centres at NSEL, Worli, Mulund, Dahisar (in Mumbai), and Pune without having any experience in the medical field.
Also read: Pandora Paper Leak probe: Swarup brothers’ ₹30 crore seized by ED
On background verification, it emerged that staffers and doctors at the COVID-19 centres allegedly did not have medical certificates, putting question marks over their competence, and allegedly failed to provide proper treatment because of which people suffered, the FIR said. Earlier in January, BMC Commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal appeared before the ED after summons were issued to him to enquire into alleged irregularities in contracts for the health facilities during the pandemic.
₹1 cr in 2000 denomination seized in another case
In a separate case, sleuths carried out searches at nine locations of notorious criminal Suresh Jagubhai Patel and his aides in Daman and Gujarat’s Valsad and seized over ₹1 crore in ₹2,000-denomination banknotes.
ED said its investigation revealed that Patel and his accomplices created a web of companies, and most of them had no business or very little business. “They were created with the sole purpose of laundering ill-gotten money generated from their criminal activities, viz., bootlegging, Extortion, corruption, etc.,” the agency stated in a statement on Wednesday. It is revealed, said the ED, that the bank accounts of Suresh Patel, his family members, and the companies and firms controlled by him have been credited with cash worth more than ₹100 crore.
Also read: ED arrests suspended Judge’s nephew in a money laundering case