Shiv Sena (UBT) secretary and the personal assistant of Aaditya Thackeray, Suraj Chavan, appeared before the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on June 26 in Mumbai over his alleged involvement in money laundering pertaining to Covid centres scam, which is estimated to be around Rs 100 crore. In this alleged scam, irregularities were reported while awarding the contracts for running Covid centres in the city.
According to his social media handle, Chavan is a Shiv Sena (UBT) secretary and a Yuva Sena core committee member. As per the officials, Suraj Chavan arrived at the ED’s zonal office at Ballard Estate in south Mumbai around 12.30 pm. Even police were deployed at the ED’s office to deal with any anticipated protests by the party workers of Shiv Sena (UBT), but no untoward incident was reported.
He was summoned by the investigation agency and recorded his statement after conducting raids last week on June 21 at 14 locations in Mumbai and one premise outside the city. The ED conducted searches at the premises of businessman Sujit Patkar, IAS officer Sanjeev Jaiswal, and Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) officials, as well as Chavan’s Chembur residence. During the raids, the agency also found a diary that records payments made to several people, including some BMC officials.
Chavan was questioned for over eight hours for his alleged role in the allotment of BMC contracts worth Rs 4,000 crore related to the Covid-19 pandemic work. The questioning was related to the allegations raised against him that he influenced the allotment of four civic contracts. It was alleged he awarded these contracts to his known people.
The ED also questioned Chavan about the source of funding for the four flats, which is suspected to be related to him. An ED official claimed, “Chavan was in touch with a civic authority in this connection and his assets, at least so far, are unexplained”. When Chavan was asked about the four flats, “he denied any link with two of the four flats , while he said that he had taken loans, including from friends, to acquire the other two”. Though during the questioning, he didn’t carry any documents related to these flats or the loans taken, as per reports.
ED is examining the role of five middlemen with political influence who allegedly acted between the Covid suppliers and certain BMC officials and influenced the allotment of the contracts in return for favours. As per an ED source, “Even these agents (middlemen) were connecting points for communication between the BMC officials and the contractors. During the searches evidence was found indicating illegal payment involving civic officials, middlemen and contractors”.
The ED source added, “Three or four contractors or suppliers have referred to Chavan in their statements given to the ED for influencing the award of contracts to them”. It was alleged that these contractors didn’t meet the eligibility criteria to get the contract, and they offered their services to the civic body at higher rates.
The ED raids, which happened last week, were conducted after Chief Minister Eknath Shinde ordered a special investigation team to investigate the alleged irregularities of over Rs 12,000 crore of the work done by BMC. These irregularities came forward after the report of the Comptroller and Auditor General.
About the alleged Covid centres scam, last year in August, an FIR (First Information Report) of forgery was filed at Azad Maidan police station, Mumbai, against Lifeline Hospital Management Services (LHMS) and its partners: Sujit Patkar, Hemant Gupta, Sanjay Shah and Raju Salunkhe. In the report, they are accused of fraudulently acquiring BMC contracts to set up Covid field hospitals during the pandemic.
After the FIR, the case was transferred by police to Economic Offences Wing to investigate the allegations of cheating and forgery. Thereafter, ED lodged the case of money laundering and started its investigation.
