Mumbai: Indications are that more people will be arrested in connection with the corruption in jumbo covid centers. Last day, Mumbai Police’s financial crime investigation department B.M.C. Joint Municipal Commissioner Ramesh Pawar was questioned.
The police is mainly investigating how Sujit Patkar’s organization got the contract for running the Covid centers. Sujit Patkar is close to Sanjay Raut, the main leader of Shiv Sena’s Uddhav Thackeray faction. His Lifeline Hospital Management Service was awarded huge contracts despite having no previous experience in the field. It is understood that a lot of information regarding this has been received from Ramesh Pawar.
There are indications that there may be more arrests after this. According to the police, Ramesh Pawar, who was the additional commissioner at that time, had no role in awarding the contract. But he is likely to be a key witness in the case.
Raju Salunge (48) and Bala Kadam (58) have been arrested so far in this case. The two were arrested ten days ago and are now in judicial custody. Salunge is also one of the owners of the above company. The police found that Salunke had transferred Rs 82 lakh to Kadam’s account. Apart from this, 87.31 lakhs and 45 lakhs were transferred to Kadam’s account in two installments from the company’s account. The statement given by the arrested said that all this was spent for the activities of the Covid centers. But they have not been able to produce any document of this. BMC awarded contract to build temporary Covid centers in the city during the outbreak of Covid. Provided by Lifeline Hospital Management Service. The Financial Crimes Investigation Department has asked to produce all the documents related to this agreement.