BMC Covid scams: EOW begins four new preliminary enquiries

A PE is generally conducted by EOW to look into any matter to see if any cognizable offence has been committed. And once the probe agency ascertains that a cognizable offence has been committed, it registers an FIR.

Currently, EOW is conducting seven PEs, and in none of the cases, it has filed an FIR.

EOW officials said soon they would start summoning civic officials and contractors for questioning in connection with the fresh PEs.

The latest four PEs will focus on the dealings pertaining to the purchase of body bags, Remdesevir, contracts pertaining to Oxygen plants, and various other expanses done at the Covid jumbo centres.

One of the private companies which is under scanner, had supplied body bags for dead Covid-19 patients to BMC at Rs 6,800 a piece, which was over three times what it charged in other private hospitals or government authorities during the same period, earlier ED inquiry had revealed.

The Covid-19 treatment medicines, mainly Remdesivir injections, used by the BMC-operated hospitals too, were purchased at a 25–30 percent higher price than what was available in the market during that time. The gross irregularities were pointed out, but the same continued at the insistence of senior officials of the BMC, the ED source said.

Besides this, exorbitant and overvalued payments were made to contractors who set up Oxygen plants and various Covid field hospitals.

Sources said that the fresh PEs are based on the crucial information that the Enforcement Directorate shared with the EOW recently.

ED stumbled upon these alleged glaring financial irregularities while probing the alleged irregularities linked to the Rs 32 crore Covid jumbo centre scam. ED officials have come across various other alleged irregularities estimated to be worth nearly Rs 4,000 crore.

Since these alleged irregularities were not directly linked to the EOW’s FIR in connection with Lifeline Management Service Pvt. Ltd., they shared them with the EOW.

ED has already carried out multiple searches in four states pertaining to these financial irregularities, but as they cannot independently initiate money laundering investigations into these irregularities, they have shared the information with EOW. Once the EOW registers a fresh FIR, ED may lodge fresh PMLA cases and probe the money laundering aspects.

The ED has already inquired municipal commissioner Iqbal Chahal, then additional municipal commissioner Sanjeev Jaiswal, and other senior civic officials besides nearly a dozen contractors, suppliers and middlemen having close proximity with politicians.