The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has detained Suraj Chavan, a prominent member of the Shiv Sena (UBT) and a close associate of Aaditya Thackeray, in connection with the “Khichdi” scam case. His arrest occurred on Wednesday as a result of raids carried out by the investigation agency.
These raids took place at eight different sites in Mumbai, including the residence of Chavan and the residence of a senior officer of the Mumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC).
As part of the investigation being led by the Enforcement Department (ED), the arrest was made in connection with the theft of funds by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation in the provision of khichdi to migrant workers during the COVID shutdown.
According to the reports, it is suspected that Suraj Chavan influenced officials from the BMC to award the contracts to certain contractors who were alleged to have direct connections to the leaders of the party.
An investigation into the ‘khichdi’ scam was initiated by the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Mumbai Police in September 2023. The investigation focused on Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut’s close aide Sujit Patkar, Sunil alias Bala Kadam, Rajiv Salunke of Sahyadri Refreshment, and other individuals.
The Mumbai Police has estimated that there was a loss of about 6.37 crore due to irregularities that occurred during the awarding of the contract for the distribution of khichdi. According to the claims, the accused did not provide ‘khichdi’ to the specified numbers as stated on the invoice that was presented. The food item known as khichdi is produced by cooking rice and lentils together.
However, the contractors only distributed 125 grammes of food in each of the food packets, despite the fact that the packets were supposed to contain 250 grammes of food.
Sangeeta Hasnale, the Deputy Municipal Commissioner of BMC, had previously been the subject of questions from the Enforcement Department (ED) in connection with the money laundering investigation that the agency had started in relation to the “khichdi” fraud. At the time, Hasnale was serving as the Assistant Municipal Commissioner of Planning in Mumbai. He was also in charge of the food distribution programme that was designed to help migrant workers, daily wage labourers, and poor people who were stuck in the city.
