Actor Dino Morea appeared before the Mumbai Police’s Economic Offences Wing (EOW) on Monday for questioning in the Rs 65 crore Mithi River desilting scam, an official said.
The model-turned-actor arrived at the EOW office at police headquarters around 11 a.m., where he faced questions on his possible links with Ketan Kadam, one of the 13 people booked in the scam so far, the official said.
An official said the actor’s phone number had cropped up in the call records of the accused involved in the scam, for which three Mumbai civic officials and five contractors have also been booked.
Earlier in the month, Mumbai Police claimed that Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) officials and contractors used bogus billing to release funds without physical desilting being done in the river, a major reason for rainwater not flowing into the river and causing flooding in areas along the banks.
After raiding eight premises, Deputy Commissioner of Police (EOW) Sangramsingh Nishandar said the FIR was registered at Azad Maidan Police Station following preliminary findings that pointed towards “culpability”.
Nishandar said the FIR was registered due to the use of fake bills and fake MoUs deposited in the BMC related to the alleged desilting work. The accused were booked under penal provisions dealing with cheating, breach of trust, forgery and conspiracy. If the charges are proved in court, the accused may get a punishment of up to seven years in jail.
The FIR covered offences committed during the preparation of a contract for desilting, transportation of desilted material’s dumping at nine spots and verification of the contractors’ obligations under the contract by officials, he said.
Nishandar said the SIT investigators scanned the processes and contract procedures and found that the contractors deposited fake bills concerning nine spots where the desilted material was supposed to be dumped on land.
He also pointed to discrepancies in MoUs signed between owners of land where the silt was allegedly dumped by desilting contractors and BMC officials. (IANS)
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