The Income Tax department will help the BMC and police to probe the financial dealings of the six firms named in the massive road scam to make a watertight case against them
If there’s anyone who can sniff out a trail of ill-gotten money, it’s the Income Tax (I-T) department. That’s why the BMC has now roped in I-T sleuths to probe the financial dealings of the six firms named in the massive road scam that is currently under investigation.
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The police have been probing the case since the municipal corporation filed an FIR against these firms in April at the Azad Maidan police station for shoddy road work. “The police will probe the case, but getting tax details of these firms will make case more watertight,” said a senior civic official.
Tests carried out at 34 roads revealed that contractors had done shoddy work, resulting in crores of public money to go down the drain
The civic body had named six firms in the FIR — J Kumar, RK Madhani, Mahavir Infraprojects, KR Construction, RPS Infra projects and Relcon Infraprojects. Inspections and tests at 34 roads revealed that these firms had carried out substandard work. In the FIR, the BMC mentions that nearly Rs 10.5 crore of public money has gone down the drain, although this figure is likely to go much higher after further investigation, since the contracts add up to a whopping Rs 352 crore in total.
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This is where the I-T department will come in, to follow the trail of money. BMC chief Ajoy Mehta said, “BMC will coordinate with I-T officials, so they can help the police to investigate the money trail of the firms that are under the scanner for irregularities in road work.”
Better late than never
This should have been done much earlier, said BJP Mumbai secretary Vivekanand Gupta, who had filed a PIL at the Bombay High Court last month, asking that the investigation be transferred to the Anti-Corruption Bureau.
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“If the complainant (BMC) and Mumbai Police share their data and information with central agencies like I-T and Enforcement Directorate (ED), it will certainly help to tighten the noose around the erring contractors. Had the BMC followed this protocol earlier, not only would huge amounts of public money been saved, but these contractors would have been blacklisted much earlier,” Gupta added.
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