BMC's COVID Centre Scam: ED attaches assets worth over Rs 12 cr

New Delhi: The Directorate of Enforcement (ED) has attached assets worth more than Rs 12 crore belonging to a number of people, including Sujit Patkar, as part of a money laundering probe, the officials said on Friday. 

The federal agency's investigation is linked to an alleged fraud in setting up of Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC)-run Covid care centres in Mumbai.

The assets belong to the partners of Lifeline Hospital Management Services and their alleged accomplices.

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The attached assets are in the form of 3 flats in Mumbai, mutual fund units and balances in bank accounts, as per the agency's official statement.

The action has been taken against partners of Lifeline Hospital Management Services -- Sujit Patkar, Dr Hemant Gupta, Rajeev Salunkhe, Sanjay Shah and their accomplices Sunil Kadam, alias Bala Kadam, ED said in a statement.

The total value of the attached properties is Rs 12.24 crore. 

The probe pertains to alleged irregularities in the Jumbo Covid facilities located at Dahisar and Worli. The money laundering case stems from an FIR of the Mumbai Police.

Based on the FIR registered by Azad Maidan Police station, Mumbai under sections 420, 406, 465, 467, 468, 471 and 304A of the Indian Penal Code, the ED initiated an investigation by recording ECIR under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA) in the case of Covid Scam of Rs. 32.44 Crore, the agency said.

Patkar and Dr Kishore Bisure, ex-dean from the BMC at the Dahisar Jumbo Covid Centre, were arrested by the agency in July and they are currently lodged in a jail under judicial custody.

It further said that the investigation by the agency revealed that during June 2020 MCGM had floated tenders and contracts for manpower supply at various Jumbo Covid facilities for ICU beds, oxygenated beds and non-oxygenated beds in Mumbai through Expression of Interest (EOI) on June 22, 2020, and on June 25, 2020, Lifeline Hospital Management services obtained tender for supply of staff members i.e., doctors, nurses, multi-purpose workers (ward boys, aayas and doctor assistant) and technicians to Jumbo Covid facilities at Dahisar and Worli for the period from July 2020 to February 2022 based on incomplete and false documents.

It is further revealed that during the service period, the EOI conditions were not maintained by the partners of Lifeline Hospital Management Services, and there was a huge under-deployment of staff members.

However, the invoices were submitted by showing adequate staff attendance as per the EOI conditions through fake and fabricated attendance sheets and staff records at the Dahisar Jumbo Covid facility.

Further, no records of attendance or staff data were submitted for Worli Covid Centres by the said firm.

Despite the same, the partners of Lifeline, in connivance with BMC staff, managed to clear the invoices and received Rs 32,44,86,784.9 from MCGM Authorities from September 2020 to June 2022.

Money trail investigations under PMLA revealed that after receipt of the amount from BMC Sujit Patker and other partners of Lifeline Hospital Management Services, it has diverted for buying assets, repaying housing loans, investing in real estate etc, the agency added.

All these identified assets in the form of flats, mutual fund units and bank balances in two bank accounts, totalling Rs 12.23 crore, have been provisionally attached under Section 5 of PMLA, 2002. Further investigation into this case is underway, it added.