Road repair scam: HC seeks reply from State govt, MCGM

The Bombay High Court on Tuesday directed the State government and the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM) to file a reply in response to a petition filed regarding the road repair scam.

The scam was unearthed in October last year after which the Municipal Commissioner ordered criminal action against all the contracts who were allegedly named in the said scam.

Subsequently, the Azad Maidan police named Relcon - R K Madhani (JV), R K Madhani, Relcon Infra Projects Ltd, Mahavir Road Infrastructure Pvt Ltd, J Kumar K R Construction and RPS K R Construction, in its FIR which was registered last month.

BJP’s Mumbai unit secretary, Vivekanand Gupta, filed a criminal petition seeking transfer of the investigations in the road repair scam, which has reportedly made a total of Rs 350 crore hole in MCGM’s pocket.

“A public body is cheated, the state is cheated by some contractors and authorities, moreover public money is used in the scam and thus the investigations in the case must be transferred to ACB,” Gupta informed the division bench of Justice Vidyasagar Kanade and Justice Mahesh Sonak.

In his petition, Gupta has also sought directions to MCGM to suspend the Chief Engineer involved in the De-silting scam, just like the way, the civic body suspended two Chief

Engineers for their alleged role in the road repair scam.

Gupta has also sought ‘permanent’ blacklisting of the third party auditors, the agencies which keep tabs on the works done by contractors.

Senior counsel Anil Sakhre, appearing for MCGM told the bench that the investigations are in progress and also some of the accused were arrested.

Posting the matter on July 26, the bench has directed both the state and MCGM to file their replies in this context.