The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Mumbai Police, investigating the Rs 65.5 crore Mithi river desilting scam, has arrested two contractors for allegedly submitting fake bills and memorandums of understanding (MoUs) for silt disposal works carried out between 2013 and 2023, taking the total arrests in the case to five.
The arrested accused are Mahesh Purohit, proprietor of M B Brothers, and Sunil Upadhyay, director of SNB Infrastructure Pvt Ltd. Both were produced before the 47th Metropolitan Magistrate Court, which remanded them to police custody till December 16. The arrests came a day after a sessions court granted interim bail to key accused Ketan Kadam to visit his ailing mother.
According to the EOW, Purohit secured multiple Mithi River silt disposal contracts worth over Rs 23.4 crore. Statements from eight landowners revealed that the MoUs submitted by him were forged, and no silt was ever dumped on their land. Several alleged dumping sites were later found to be government or CIDCO-owned land.
Senior Inspector Pradeep Sawant said that Upadhyay’s company submitted fabricated MoUs from 2013 to 2018. Multiple landowners confirmed they had never signed any agreements and were unaware of any silt being dumped on their property.
The EOW stated that the custodial interrogation is necessary to recover forged documents, trace financial flows, determine how the fraud was orchestrated, and identify other conspirators and victims.
The case stems from a complaint by EOW police inspector Bilal Sheikh, alleging that BMC Storm Water Department officials and contractors colluded to manipulate tender conditions, forge dumping-ground documents, and submit fake log sheets and VTS reports to obtain payments fraudulently.
Investigations revealed that senior civic engineers, including an assistant chief engineer and a deputy chief engineer, along with private firms such as Virgo Specialties Pvt Ltd and Woder India LLP, allegedly inserted tailor-made tender conditions in 2021–22 to favor specific contractors, causing a loss of Rs 17.1 crore to BMC. Scrutiny of prior contracts showed that between 2013 and 2023, officials and contractors collectively caused a loss of Rs 45.5 crore through forged documentation, bringing the total scam amount to over Rs 65.5 crore.
Earlier, the EOW had arrested Ketan Kadam, Jay Joshi (director at Virgo Specialties Pvt Ltd), and Shersingh Rathor. Kadam and Joshi were accused of conspiring with BMC officials to ensure their contractor secured the desilting contract and received Rs 9 crore as commission. Rathor was allegedly involved in submitting fake bills and agreements, causing BMC a loss of more than Rs 29 crore. In August 2025, the EOW filed a 7,000-page chargesheet against the accused.
