Mumbai’s Economic Offenses Wing (EOW) has arrested accused BMC contractor Romin Chheda in the Covid Oxygen Plant case. This is the first major arrest in this scam. He is said to be close to Uddhav Thackeray’s son Aditya Thackeray. In fact, during Corona in Maharashtra, apart from the oxygen plant scam, body bag scam, khichdi scam and Remdesivir scam came to light.
Rs 140 crore was allocated for the oxygen plant, the contract for which was given to Romin Chheda. But, out of this only Rs 38 crore was spent. The remaining Rs 102 crore was embezzled through money laundering. The arrest has been made under charges of money laundering in the Oxygen Plant case. An FIR was lodged against Romin at Navghar police station in Mumbai on Wednesday night itself following the complaint of Kirit Somaiya, which was transferred to EOW on Thursday itself. EOW was interrogating Romin since yesterday, but he was not giving correct answers regarding money laundering.
Despite opposition, Romin got the tender for the oxygen plant.
Oxygen plants worth Rs 140 crore were to be set up during the Covid period, but only Rs 38 crore were spent. Raising the question where did the remaining Rs 102 crore go, Kirit had directly raised questions on Aditya Thackeray. Aslam Sheikh, a minister in the then MVA government and Congress leader, had also opposed giving the contract to Romen. Despite this, tenders were given to Romin for the oxygen plant.
Kirit had complained to Navghar police to file an FIR on this. After filing FIR in Mumbai Police, he also complained about Romin to ED. Now in this case, after the arrest by EOW, entry of ED is also possible.
ED is investigating the body bag scam
Earlier this month, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) had recorded the statement of BMC’s Additional Municipal Commissioner (Projects) P Velarasu in a money laundering case related to body bags purchased at inflated rates. The ED is probing the purchase of body bags by BMC at two different rates in the span of a year during the pandemic. It was purchased at the rate of Rs 6,800 in 2020, while other government agencies bought it from the same contractor at Rs 2,000 per piece. A year later, BMC purchased body bags from the same contractor at the rate of Rs 600 per piece.
