Mumbai: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has arraigned four more persons as accused in connection with the money laundering case linked to the jumbo Covid centre irregularities to the tune of Rs 32.76 crore from July 2020 to February 2022.
The four new accused added to the case are Sunil Kadam alias Bala, Sonu Bajaj, Sanjay Parab of Elegant Multi Services and Ravikant Singh of MS Consultancy. The court, on Monday, took cognisance of the complaint against them and issued summons.
As per the prosecution, partners of Lifeline Hospital Management Services – Hemant Gupta, Sujit Patkar, Sanjay Shah and Raju Salunkhe – faked experience and submitted forged partnership deed with the BMC to get the tender to provide medical facilities to jumbo Covid centres.
The ED has claimed that Kadam played a pivotal role in the conspiracy and was “instrumental in securing the tender for the firm by leveraging his influence, despite not being officially listed as a partner”. As per the ED, he managed to keep his involvement concealed while drawing Rs 1.75 lakh as salary and received Rs 45 lakh as rental payments from Lifeline without any formal documentation.
ED further claimed that Kadam was not the owner of the premises and the actual owner knew nothing about the rent. The agency also claimed that he was actively involved in the processes that led to the issuance of the manpower supply contract to Lifeline.
The ED has claimed that Kadam received Rs 1.81 crore in his account, in the account of his wife and also in the account of Bajaj, his close associate. It is also claimed that Kadam acquired a flat in the name of Bajaj in Oshiwara.
The ED also claimed that Parab played a key role in the execution of the conspiracy. In his statement, though, Parab claimed that he was contacted by Kadam for a contract of manpower supply to Covid centres and offered to pay Rs 20,000 per candidate. His firm allegedly received Rs 3.39 crore from Lifeline, of which Rs4 lakh was given directly to Kadam and Rs 8 lakh as kickbacks through Bajaj.
Similarly, Singh was also contracted to provide doctors and nurses to the centres. Singh’s firm is said to have received Rs 2.88 crore from Lifeline. Singh claimed that his firm paid bribes to the person in-charge at Lifeline to clear bills.
