Money laundering accused Sujit Patkar used Sanjay Raut card to meet senior BMC official: ED | Mumbai News – Times of India

MUMBAI: Money laundering accused Sujit Patkar had used the reference of his friend and Shiv Sena UBT MP Sanjay Raut to meet additional municipal commissioner Sanjeev Jaiswal during the pandemic for Dahisar and Worli Covid jumbo hospital tender discussion, Enforcement Directorate (ED) said in its chargesheet filed in a special court recently. ED said Patkar had submitted a letter on the letterhead of Lifeline Hospital Management Services (LHMS) to the office of Jaiswal before formation of his firm. “As he (Jaiswal) was not available… Mr Patkar had used Mr Sanjay Raut’s name as a reference for him (Mr Sanjeev Jaiswal) to seek a response.”
Patkar told ED he had not asked or requested Sanjay Raut, “However he (Raut) knew he (Patkar) is associated with LHMS and applying for tender of manpower to jumbo Covid centres.” The chargesheet said, “Due to his (Patkar’s) proximity to politically exposed person, he manages to gather prior information about tender process. Thereafter, he along with other partners set up their firm LHMS so the tender could be awarded in favour of their firm.” ED said it is continuing its investigation “into specific roles of other accomplices”.
During the pandemic, LHMS was providing health workers and doctors to BMC’s Dahisar and Worli Covid centres. LHMS submitted inflated bills to BMC, even after supplying around 60% less health staff, compromising the health of Covid-19 patients. They even submitted bills on the day when Dahisar Jumbo centre was not operational due to Cyclone Tauktae and all patients were shifted to other hospitals. Junior staff and new dean (who replaced accused Dr Kishor Bisure) raised these discrepancies with senior BMC officers but no action was taken and just Rs 31 lakh penalty imposed on LHMS.
In the chargesheet, ED said senior BMC officers had not acted against LHMS despite juniors highlighting discrepancies. The chargesheet said senior BMC officials pressured juniors to clear all bills of LHMS. However, ED chargesheet is silent on role of the senior BMC officers. During the probe, ED via post sent letters to 525 medical staff hired by LHMS. Though more than 141 of these letters were returned undelivered, and replies received from 47 such employees only. Some of them in their reply submitted that they have never worked in Dahisar-Worli Covid centres, or have submitted personal record while appearing for an interview at LHMS or some have worked for a shorter period but their attendance was shown for a much larger period.
Assistant municipal commissioner Keshav Ubale told ED in his statement that on June 24, 2020 a pre-bid meeting was called by Jaiswal in which Sujit Patkarwith his other partners were present. LHMS was facing inadequacy of required documents that was brought to the evaluation committee’s notice, as partnership documents of LHMS were not registered. Despite that, the evaluation was done on July 6, 2020 under chairmanship of Sanjeev Jaiswal, and the contract was awarded to LHMS with final approval of BMC chief I S Chahal. In his statement to ED, Chahal said Jaiswal was made in charge of all jumbo Covid centres created.