Mumbai Covid Center Scam: The Economic Offenses Wing (EOW) on Tuesday arrested two persons named Rajeev Nandkumar Salunke and Bala Ramachandra Kadam, both of whom are close aides of Sanjay Raut, in the Jumbo Covid Center scam case in Mumbai.
Accused Rajeev Nandkumar Salunke has been produced in the court and sent to police custody till March 6.
The FIR in the matter was registered at Azad Maidan police station, however, the investigation was later transferred to the EOW, which has now arrested two persons.
Last month, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) termed as ‘baseless’ the allegation of a Rs 100-crore scam in setting up jumbo Covid-19 centres.
The civic body had said that only Rs 33 crore was spent on providing manpower to these centres.
In January, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) questioned BMC chief IS Chahal in an alleged money-laundering case against Sanjay Raut’s aide Sujit Patkar.
Chahal said that in March 2020, the BMC had set up 10 jumbo field hospitals in the city with over 15,000 beds, 1,000 ICUs and oxygen beds. However, it did not have the requisite manpower to manage such huge facilities and hence, decided to outsource the work to external agencies.
A total of four parties had given their bids for these hospitals in which about one lakh patients were treated.
In August 2022, former Bharatiya Janata Party MP Kirit Somaiya lodged a complaint with the Mumbai Police alleging that fake documents were submitted to win the bid for jumbo Covid centres.
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