Bollywood actor Dino Moriya appeared before the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday to record his statement in connection with the money laundering investigation of the alleged sweet river of Rs 65 crore.
An official said that after being summoned by the federal agency, Moriya reached the ED office at Ballard Estate in South Mumbai at around 10.30 am.
The official said that the statement of the actor would be recorded, as some financial transactions have allegedly found to be associated with them and some accused, who were first arrested by the Mumbai Police’s Economic Offenses Branch in connection with the scam to extract silt from the sweet river. A large number of media persons were present outside the investigating agency’s office.
Earlier on June 12, ED officials questioned Moriya for several hours. Official sources had earlier reported that the ED had raided more than 15 places in Kochi, Mumbai and Kerala on June 6, including the campus of Dino Moriya in Bandra (West) area, his brother Santino campus, some officials and contractors of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC).
He said that the raids were conducted in Kochi as one of the companies providing silt -removal equipment to BMC – Mattipopopopp -Technical Services Private Limited – is located in this city.
Sources said that the investigation is being done under the Money Prevention Act (PMLA).
The ED case is stems from an FIR filed in May by the Economic Offenses Wing (EOW) of Mumbai Police, which is accused of alleged scam of Rs 65.54 crore in tenders given by 2017-2023 against 13 people, including contractors and civil officials. The sweet river flows through Mumbai and serves as rainy water drainage channel for the metro city.
Uddhav Thackeray-led undivided Shiv Sena controlled cash-rich BMC from 1997 to 2022 from the partition of the party. After the termination of the common body in 2022, the civil body was controlled by the state government, which was then led Eknath Shinde.
The police alleged in their complaint that BMC officials prepared the tender for the contract to extract silt in such a way that it would benefit a special supplier of machinery, and the contractors allegedly made fake bills to take the silt out of Mumbai.
Last month, the 49 -year -old actor and his brother were questioned by the Economic Offenses Branch of Mumbai Police last month.
It is believed that the police questioned the Moriya brothers about their alleged relationship with the alleged middleman Ketan Kadam. Kadam was arrested along with another accused Jai Joshi in the case. He was also questioned about some financial transactions done in a company associated with Santino.
According to the police, Kadam and Joshi were involved in renting ‘silt push’ machines and multi -purpose amphibian pantoon machines to the contractors working to extract silt from the sweet river.
The plan to extract silt from the river was made by the Mumbai Municipal Corporation officials after the 2005 floods, causing the city to come to a complete standstill. The ED had attached the property of Moriya in 2021 under the money laundering investigation related to the alleged bank fraud case against the Gujarat -based pharmaceutical company Sterling Biotech and its promoters.