Mumbai: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) conducted raids at locations connected to Bollywood actor Dino Morea, BMC assistant engineer Prashant Ramugade and others as part of the investigation into money laundering in the alleged Mithi river cleaning scam.The ED operations spanned 15 locations in Maharashtra and one in Kochi, Kerala, and continued until late on Friday. The raided persons included contractors, desilting machine suppliers and middlemen. One of the machine suppliers being searched was in Kochi. UBO Ridez, an electric cart company, lists Morea’s brother Santino as a director alongside the wife of another accused, Ketan Kadam, who was arrested by the EOW in the Mithi cleaning scam. Kadam reportedly invested Rs 18 lakh in the company. Morea, known for his closeness to Shiv Sena (UBT) MLA Aaditya Thackeray, is not directly involved in the Mithi desilting contract. He had formed a business partnership with one of the contractors for a company operating electric carriages, which replaced traditional Victoria horse-carts used by the tourism sector in south Mumbai. The discontinued Victoria horse carriages had returned in an electric avatar and in March 2021, the then chief minister Uddhav Thackeray inaugurated these electric carts.The ED gathered documents, digital evidence and mobile phones for examination during the searches. The investigation stems from an FIR filed by the Economic Offence Wing (EOW) of the police, which had arrested Kadam and businessman Jay Joshi, owner of Virgo Specialities. Joshi was granted bail in the case on Thursday.The Mithi desilting work has faced allegations of corruption and contractor cartelisation for decades. The EOW FIR mentions mainly two allegations, stating contractors deceived the BMC using forged documents regarding silt disposal from Mithi between 2013 and 2021. It also notes the controversial award of desilting work to a company after modifying conditions to ensure only contractors with specific machinery could secure the contract. Even a contractor arranged visits of the BMC engineers to examine the machine, which he had claimed to have procured from abroad.
