Mumbai
The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), the richest municipality in the country, is facing a peculiar situation. An FIR for cheating and hatching a criminal conspiracy in the alleged multi-crore BMC Covid body-bags purchase scam has been filed against Kishori Pednekar, ex-mayor (from the Uddhav Thackeray Shiv Sena faction) and senior IAS officer, and sitting BMC additional municipal commissioner P. Vellarasu. The FIR was filed after a probe by the special investigating team of the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Maharashtra Police. Kishori Pednekar and P. Vellarasu have been booked by the Agripada police station on the complaint of the EOW.
However, there is a twist in the tale. Many BMC corporators say that it is shocking that Vellarasu, who is facing serious criminal charges, is still continuing in the same office he was in during the pandemic. And it is he who is now sitting on the same files related to the alleged body-bag scam and other major contracts during the pandemic.
The case against Pednekar, Vellarasu, and other officers has been registered for alleged cheating, breach of trust, that is Section 420, 409, 418 (cheating with knowledge that wrongful loss may ensue to a person whose interest and offender is bound to violate) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) under the IPC.
Vellarasu was allegedly involved in the award of contracts of the BMC during the Covid pandemic and apart from this was handling purchase and tenders worth thousands of crores of rupees.
The Special Investigation Team of the Economic Offences Wing of Maharashtra Police was constituted by the government of Maharashtra to investigate the alleged Rs 4,000 crore Covid body-bags purchase scam in which body-bags costing Rs 1,500-2,000 were purchased at thrice the cost at Rs 6,800 per bag at the behest of Pednekar and Vellarasu, it has been alleged. They and their associates deny such charges.
There are grave and serious allegations against several other officials of the BMC as well, but this is for the first time an FIR has been registered against an IAS officer. On the condition of anonymity, a corporator told The Sunday Guardian that Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis will take action soon as BJP corporators feel that it is not right to allow a sitting officer charged with serious charges to continue in office.
Sources said that the ED might start a fresh inquiry into the alleged scam soon as they have obtained documents from the EOW related to the scam and initiated a case of money laundering. The case was filed with the EOW by an ex-BJP Member of Parliament Kirit Somaiyya.