Mithi River desilting: ED summons actor Dino Morea; freezes Rs 1.25-crore worth deposits, cash

The federal agency, in a statement, said that it has frozen and seized cash and deposits worth about Rs 1.25 after conducting searches at 18 locations in Mumbai in Maharashtra and Kochi and Thrissur in Kerala on Friday.

Mumbai: At least eight people, including actor Dino Morea, his brother and some BMC officials, have been summoned by the Enforcement Directorate for questioning next week in a money laundering case linked to an alleged Rs 65 crore worth Mithi River desilting "scam", official sources said on Saturday.

The federal agency, in a statement, said that it has frozen and seized cash and deposits worth about Rs 1.25 crore after conducting searches at 18 locations in Mumbai in Maharashtra and Kochi and Thrissur in Kerala on Friday.

The sources said around eight to nine people, including actor Dino Morea, his brother Santino Rocco Morea, some Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) officials and contractors, have been asked to appear before the agency in Mumbai on different dates next week.

Their statements will be recorded under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) once they depose, they said.

The ED said the raids covered the office and residential premises linked to BMC engineer Prashant Ramgude, contractor Bhupendra Purohit, Kerala-based company Matprop Technical Service Pvt Ltd., director of Virgo Specialities Pvt. Ltd. Jay Joshi, controller of Woder India LLP Ketan Kadam, Dino Morea's house in Bandra (West) area of Mumbai and that of his brother Santino.

The agency called the Morea brothers "close associates" of Kadam, an arrested alleged middleman in the case.

The money laundering case stems from a Mumbai Police economic offences wing (EOW) FIR filed in May against 13 people, including contractors and civic officials, for an alleged Rs 65.54 crore scam in the tenders awarded from 2017-2023 for desilting of the Mithi River which flows through Mumbai and acts as a stormwater drainage channel for the metro city.

The Uddhav Thackeray-led undivided Shiv Sena controlled the cash-rich BMC from 1997 till the party's split in 2022. After the expiry of the general body in 2022, the civic body was controlled by the state government, which was then headed by Eknath Shinde.

It was alleged by the police in its complaint that BMC officials tailored the tender for the desilting contract in such a way that it benefited a particular supplier of machinery, and the contractors reportedly generated fraudulent bills for transporting the sludge out of Mumbai.

Evidence collected during the course of the investigation and search operation prima facie indicate that Prashant Ramgude, Bhupendra Purohit, Jay Joshi, Ketan Kadam, officials of Matprop Technical Service and others "colluded" to form a "cartel" with the intent to manipulate BMC tenders related to the desilting of the Mithi River, the ED said.

This action "effectively conferred a monopoly in the award of desilting contracts of Mithi river and caused payments at inflated rates for desilting works resulting in undue gains to the contractors and associated parties, thereby causing financial loss to the public exchequer," it alleged in the statement.

It claimed these "undue" financial gains have been concealed by layering them through certain shell companies (bogus firms), which were formed by collusion amongst Ketan Kadam, Bhupendra Purohit, Prashant Ramgude and other private individuals.

Morea and his brother were questioned by the Mumbai Police EOW in this case last month.

The 49-year-old actor has been questioned twice by the police. The Morea brothers, it is understood, were questioned by the police about their purported links with Kadam and Joshi (also arrested by police) apart from some financial transactions made in a company linked to Santino.

Kadam and Joshi, according to police, were involved in the renting out of 'silt pusher' machines and multi-purpose amphibious pontoon machines to contractors who were carrying out Mithi river desilting work.

The ED said it seized Rs 7 lakh in cash and froze 22 bank accounts and fixed deposits apart from a demat account during the searches. It was not specified by the agency what was seized from where.

"The total amount of seizure/freezing of proceeds of crime is more than Rs 1.25 crore so far," it said. The plan to desilt the river was under the Mumbai civic authorities following the 2005 floods, which brought the city to a grinding halt.