Mumbai: The special PMLA court has granted permission to the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to record statements of Ketan Kadam, a key accused in Mithi river desilting scam case. The team of the officers would be allowed to visit the prison, where Kadam is lodged to record his statement.
The agency secured permission to record Kadam’s statement between July 28 and August 8 at Arthur Road prison, where he is currently lodged. Kadam was arrested by the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) for his role in a Rs 65.54 crore scam, in which he, along with alleged intermediary Jay Joshi and some BMC officers, allegedly forced a contractor to rent machines at inflated rates from Virgo Specialties, causing heavy losses to the civic body.
EOW had also claimed that Kadam had paid for the expenses of the visit of the BMC official to Kerala and Delhi to observe demonstrations and inspect the proposed stilt pushing pontoon machine and multipurpose amphibious pontoon machine/Truxor.
Kadam in his plea filed in magistrate court had claimed that he is neither a director or partner in the firm involved in the case. He had further claimed that he was just an official signatory who represented the firm he was employed with.
However, Joshi had claimed that it was Kadam who was at the center of the deal of giving the machine used for the river desilting on rent. Joshi however, had claimed that he had appointed Kadam as CEO on May 5, 2020, and that all agreements, transactions, and MoUs had been managed by Kadam. The defense of Joshi had emphasized that Kadam signed the agreements and handled the company’s affairs.
