Mumbai: Actor Dino Morea was arrested by the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Mumbai Police on Saturday in connection with the alleged Rs 65.54-crore Mithi river desilting scam, marking one of the most high-profile arrests in the case so far.
Morea was taken into custody after nearly eight hours of questioning at the EOW office on Friday. Officials said the actor, who had been named as an accused in the case around 20 days ago, was called for questioning and arrested after investigators were not satisfied with his responses.
The arrest came a day after the EOW filed its chargesheet in the case. Morea had earlier been questioned twice by the agency and had cooperated with the probe, according to officials familiar with the matter. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) had also questioned the actor earlier this year in a separate money laundering investigation linked to the same alleged irregularities.
The case relates to alleged large-scale irregularities in contracts awarded for the desilting of the Mithi river, the 18-km-long river that flows through Mumbai’s suburbs and serves as a critical channel for draining rainwater during the monsoon. Investigators allege that contracts worth crores were awarded in violation of norms, with payments made for work that was either not carried out or billed at inflated costs.
The EOW has been probing the role of civic officials, contractors and intermediaries in the alleged scam. The agency has alleged that desilting work, meant to deepen and clean the river to prevent flooding in low-lying areas, was shown completed on paper while little actual work was done on the ground across several stretches.
Morea’s name surfaced during the course of the investigation, and the EOW formally named him as an accused last month. His questioning on Friday stretched from the afternoon into the night, after which officials confirmed his arrest in the early hours of Saturday.
The actor is expected to be produced before a court, where the EOW is likely to seek his custody for further interrogation. Officials said they want to question him about his alleged links with some of the contractors and about financial transactions that are under the scanner.
The desilting scam has been a politically sensitive subject in Maharashtra, with opposition parties accusing the previous civic administration of turning the annual pre-monsoon desilting exercise into a money-spinning racket. The Mithi river, which passes through areas like Kurla, BKC and Dharavi before emptying into the Arabian Sea at Mahim, has been at the centre of Mumbai’s flood-mitigation efforts for two decades.
Officials said the investigation is continuing and more arrests are possible as the agency follows the money trail and examines the roles of other individuals and entities involved in the awarding and execution of the contracts.
