MUMBAI: The ED on Wednesday searched 15 premises in and around Mumbai, including those of IAS officer Sanjeev Jaiswal, Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Aaditya Thackeray’s close aide Suraj Chavan and UBT MP Sanjay Raut‘s family friend and businessman Sujit Patkar, along with two senior BMC officials and others, in a laundering case connected to the Covid field hospitals scam.
The scam relates to a BMC contract for field hospitals obtained by Patkar’s partnership firm, Lifeline Hospital Management Services (LHMS), during the pandemic allegedly with the help of forged documents about its experience in healthcare. It is also alleged that the contract was awarded at higher rates.
The probe was initiated on a complaint by BJP leader Kirit Somaiya alleging a Rs 100 crore scam.
The two senior BMC officials whose homes were searched were deputy municipal commissioner Ramakant Biradar and assistant medical officer Haridas Rathod. Jaiswal, who is currently VP and CEO of Mhada, was BMC additional municipal commissioner while Biradar and Rathod were in the civic body’s central purchase department when the contract was awarded.
Patkar got the contract just a month after he formed LHMS along with three others in June 2020. Within a couple of months, LHMS got a similar contract in Pune. LHMS allegedly provided fewer healthcare staff than agreed upon to maximise profits, and in Pune, it was issued a showcase notice for poor management of the field hospital.
The BMC allegedly first awarded the contract and, a year later, signed a related agreement with the firm.
In January this year, the ED had recorded the statement of BMC commissioner I S Chahal. He had shared the required information with ED and had told mediapersons that the BMC had had no mechanism at that time to verify documents submitted by entities providing workforce for field hospitals.
In February 2022, while investigating a laundering case about an FSI fraud at Goregaon’s Patra Chawl, in which Sanjay Raut is one of the accused, the ED had searched Patkar’s premises and found several documents related to the field hospital contract. Some of the documents indicated LHMS had received Rs 32 crore in its accounts from the BMC even before the signing of the agreement with the civic body. The ED had passed this information on to agencies concerned.
The scam relates to a BMC contract for field hospitals obtained by Patkar’s partnership firm, Lifeline Hospital Management Services (LHMS), during the pandemic allegedly with the help of forged documents about its experience in healthcare. It is also alleged that the contract was awarded at higher rates.
The probe was initiated on a complaint by BJP leader Kirit Somaiya alleging a Rs 100 crore scam.
The two senior BMC officials whose homes were searched were deputy municipal commissioner Ramakant Biradar and assistant medical officer Haridas Rathod. Jaiswal, who is currently VP and CEO of Mhada, was BMC additional municipal commissioner while Biradar and Rathod were in the civic body’s central purchase department when the contract was awarded.
Patkar got the contract just a month after he formed LHMS along with three others in June 2020. Within a couple of months, LHMS got a similar contract in Pune. LHMS allegedly provided fewer healthcare staff than agreed upon to maximise profits, and in Pune, it was issued a showcase notice for poor management of the field hospital.
The BMC allegedly first awarded the contract and, a year later, signed a related agreement with the firm.
In January this year, the ED had recorded the statement of BMC commissioner I S Chahal. He had shared the required information with ED and had told mediapersons that the BMC had had no mechanism at that time to verify documents submitted by entities providing workforce for field hospitals.
In February 2022, while investigating a laundering case about an FSI fraud at Goregaon’s Patra Chawl, in which Sanjay Raut is one of the accused, the ED had searched Patkar’s premises and found several documents related to the field hospital contract. Some of the documents indicated LHMS had received Rs 32 crore in its accounts from the BMC even before the signing of the agreement with the civic body. The ED had passed this information on to agencies concerned.