14 July,2017 02:56 PM IST | Mumbai | Anurag Kamble
Though the BMC is planning to crack the whip on 281 engineers for their alleged involvement in the road scam, contractors accused of doing shoddy work are still enjoying a free run
A pothole filled road
Though the BMC is planning to crack the whip on 281 engineers for their alleged involvement in the road scam, contractors accused of doing shoddy work are still enjoying a free run. They have managed to evade the police net since 2015, when the scam was unearthed, but are still awaiting anticipatory bail.
Six contractors and one engineer involved in the R350-crore scam have their anticipatory bail applications pending in the Bombay High Court. Cops had arrested 25 people in the case, including three senior BMC engineers, site engineers and auditors. All of them have secured bail now.
The six errant contractors Jeetendra Kikavat, Ketan Shah, Nalin Gupta, Tejas Shah, Narendra Madhani and Manish Kasliwal and one BMC engineer Vibhas Achrekar, Executive engineer roads department have filed for anticipatory bail in HC, after the sessions court rejected their plea last year.
"We had submitted the charge sheet in the case after arresting site engineers. We are waiting for HC's orders on the remaining persons who have applied for bail. Once that is settled, we will complete the probe," said a senior officer.
The police had filed the charge sheet in December 2016 against all 25 arrested accused, including former chief engineer (vigilance) Ashok Pawar and Uday Murudkar an executive engineer Kishore Yerme. Meanwhile, the internal committee of BMC that was probing the scam had nailed 281 civic engineers from the roads department. Out of them, 90 were held responsible for the repaired roads, while 191 were accused of dereliction of duty for shoddy work on the 200-plus roads inspected in 2016.
