Latest news with #Ramugade
Indian Express
30-06-2025
- Indian Express
Wrongful loss of public money of BMC to which common Mumbaikars give tax: Court
IN THE detailed order rejecting anticipatory bail to an accused in the Mithi river desilting scam case, a Mumbai court said that wrongful loss of public money is caused to the civic body, to which the common Mumbaikar gives tax every year. While rejecting the pre-arrest bail plea of BMC Engineer Prashant Ramugade, the court said that as an officer in an important post, it is his duty to safeguard public interest, but he had 'failed to do so'. The court last week rejected the pre-arrest pleas of Ramugade and businessman Bhupendra Rajpurohit, a contractor. The Mumbai Police Economic Offences Wing (EOW) opposed Rajpurohit's plea alleging that he had submitted forged documents to the BMC without actually desilting and transporting silt from the riverside to the dumping sites, causing wrongful loss to the BMC. '…material prima facie show that the applicant is one of the conspirators along with other co-accused, and he successfully got tenders every year since 2018 in the name of either of his companies or those run through his relatives,' the court order said. It added that fake photographs were uploaded and fake logsheets maintained to show that the vehicles were making trips to collect silt from the river. 'There is wrongful loss of public money of the public body, to which the common Mumbaikar gives tax every year,' additional sessions judge N G Shukla said in the order on June 27. In the case of Ramugade, the court referred to statements of witnesses showing that he was designated to monitor the silting activities and the progress in work. The police suspect that wrongful losses of more than Rs 65 crore were caused to the BMC. 'Being officer on an important post, it was duty of the applicant (Ramugade) to safeguard the public interest, but he failed to do so,' the court said.
Time of India
26-06-2025
- Time of India
Mithi case: BMC engineer denied pre-arrest bail
Mumbai: A sessions court on Thursday rejected the anticipatory bail plea of BMC engineer Prashant Ramugade in the Rs 65-crore Mithi river desilting scam case. The court, however, granted him interim relief from arrest for a fortnight. Ramugade, deputy chief engineer of Mithi river development project, requested the court to grant the relief as he wanted to file an appeal in HC. Last week, in a detailed order rejecting the anticipatory bail plea of deputy chief engineer of the stormwater drains department (operations and maintenance), Prashant Tayshete, the sessions court had said that prima facie evidence indicates he, along with other BMC officers, played a role in manipulating the tender terms and conditions to ensure the use of two specific machines for the desilting work. tnn
Hindustan Times
14-05-2025
- Business
- Hindustan Times
Mithi desilting scam: Intermediaries funded BMC officials' foreign tour, claims EOW
Mumbai: Prashant Ramugade, the deputy chief engineer of Mithi River Development Project, had visited Dubai and Singapore in 2020-21 using funds provided by Ketan Kadam, who was arrested last week in connection with the alleged ₹65-crore Mithi river desilting scam, the Mumbai police's Economic Offences Wing (EOW) said on Tuesday. Kadam and Jayesh Joshi, who allegedly acted as intermediaries in renting out desilting machines to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) at inflated rates, knew Ramugade prior to submitting bids for the desilting work, the EOW told the Esplanade court. Kadam even hosted the civic official and his family in Delhi and bought the tickets for their foreign trips, the EOW said. The EOW had, on May 6, booked 13 people, including three civic officials, for allegedly causing the BMC a loss of ₹65.54 crore in connection with the Mithi River desilting project. The agency alleged that silt and debris was not removed from several places, inflated rates were charged for removing the silt and no audit of the desilting work was carried out. On May 7, the EOW arrested Kadam, the director of Woder India LLP, a Mumbai-based company that provides desilting services. Joshi, associated with Mumbai-based industrial product manufacturer Virgo Specialties Pvt Ltd, was also arrested the same day. According to the police, the two arrested accused acted as intermediaries in renting out silt pusher machines and multipurpose amphibious dredging equipment supplied by Kochi-based Matprop Technical Services Pvt Ltd. The rent to be paid by the companies for the machines was decided at ₹4 crore for two years, when the price of the machines was ₹5 crore, said a police officer. On Tuesday, when Kadam and Joshi were produced before the Esplanade court, the EOW claimed that Kadam had hosted Ramugade and two other BMC officials – deputy chief engineer Ganesh Bendre and a certain Tayshete – in a hotel in Delhi in September 2020. Kadam had even paid for their plane tickets, which established that the arrested accused knew the BMC officials even before the tenders were floated, the EOW said. When Ramugade visited Singapore with his family for four days in May 2021, Kadam paid for the expenses then too, said a police officer. 'On December 13, 2021, Ramugade visited Dubai and we have found that those bookings were also done by Kadam,' said the officer. The police said they had found several dummy companies and suspect money was routed by BMC officials to the intermediaries via these companies. Dr Yusuf Iqbal and Zain Shroff, who had appeared for Joshi, argued that their client was just a middleman and he had not received a single penny from the civic body. He had merely rented out the machines while the tender was floated by the BMC, they said. After hearing both sides, additional chief judicial magistrate Vinod Patil sent both the accused to judicial custody. Meanwhile, Ramugade had filed an anticipatory bail plea in the sessions court, which was due to be heard on Wednesday, the EOW told the Esplanade court.
