The Mumbai police arrested a contractor in the Rs 14.41-crore road works scam early on Wednesday morning at an undisclosed location in the city. This is the first arrest of a contractor in the scam, which is being investigated by a Special Investigation Team (SIT). Sources said that the accused, identified as Dipan Pravinchandra Shah (47), gained nearly Rs 2.6 crore from the scam.
Shah is the director of M/S Relcon Infra Projects Limited, one of six firms named in the FIR filed by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC).
Officials said that Shah had been absconding since the investigation began. “We arrested him after our team traced him. He was in the city itself but not at any of his given and known addresses,” said a senior officer.
Following an FIR by the BMC, an SIT team was set up to look into the road works project worth Rs 352 crore. “While the total cost of the project is over Rs 350 crore, the scam involves Rs 14.41 crore. There is alleged involvement of not just contractors, but also engineers and certain BMC officials too. We are still studying the paper trail and all the documentation work done in the project,” said the officer.
The officer further said, “Shah received a cheque of Rs 2.60 crore from the civic body. This included payment for work he had not even executed and parts of the work that were shoddy,” said the officer. Reports reveal that the Relcon handled major roads in Fort, Mulund and certain areas in the suburbs too. “We are still investigating the contracts Relcon were awarded and the roads on which it conducted repair and reconstruction,” said the officer.
Shah has been booked under Sections 197 (issuing or signing false certificate), 464 (making a false document), 467 (forgery of document), 471 (using as genuine a forged document) and 420 (cheating) of the Indian Penal Code. He was produced in court and has been remanded to police custody.
