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India Today
5 hours ago
- India Today
Cops acted in haste: High Court declares Anchor Group director's arrest illegal
The Bombay High Court has declared the arrest of Hemang Shah, the 50-year-old director of Anchor Group, illegal and has reprimanded the police for acting in undue was arrested on allegations of financial fraud levelled by his elder brother Mehul Shah. He was detained at Delhi airport on May 17 while attempting to travel to Oman's Muscat based on the LOC issued against him, and was then brought to Mumbai. According to prosecutors, a formal arrest was made the next its judgment, the High Court ruled there was no necessity to detain Shah in a display of "zeal and enthusiasm", and suggested that the arrest appeared to be aimed at recovering a disputed financial sum. The court came down heavily on the conduct of the police, observing that the registration of the complaint at 2.14 am on May 14 - just after midnight - and the issuance of a Look-Out Circular (LOC) the same day reflected "alarming urgency".Shah filed a petition before the Bombay High Court challenging his arrest. Representing Shah were a legal team comprising senior advocate Ravi Prakash and advocates Munaf Virjee, Aditya Dewan, Debopriyo Moulik and Sagar Shetty, who appeared along with AMR Law and Hrituraj plea argued that the matter was a financial dispute between Shah and his elder brother, Mehul, and father, and attempts were being made to resolve it through said that immediately after Shah's arrest, Mehul Shah's wife contacted Hemang Shah's wife, pressuring her to bring a cheque book to the office of the Economic Offences Wing (EOW). Chat messages allegedly evidencing this were submitted before the reviewing these chats, the bench concluded that "the objective behind the petitioner's custody was the recovery of the amount being negotiated through mediation".Shah also claimed he was detained at Delhi airport around 5.30 pm on May 17 and was produced before a magistrate at 10.45 pm the next day - over 24 hours later - making the custody unlawful. While he was informed of the grounds for his arrest, no relative, friend, or nominated person was notified, his legal team contended. They alleged that the arrest was used as a tool to coerce and pressure prosecution argued that Shah and the EOW officials reached Mumbai at 10.30 am on May 18, following which he was formally arrested at 7.30 pm and produced before the court later that night. They also claimed Shah's father was informed about the the court rejected the prosecution's argument, calling it "astonishing and shocking", noting that Shah's father was himself one of the complainants in the Watch IN THIS STORY#Mumbai
The Print
17 hours ago
- The Print
Fake MoUs, ghost dumping sites & Kerala firm. What's Mithi river ‘desilting scam' & Dino Morea link
This has led to significant political fallout with the ruling Mahayuti accusing Shiv Sena (UBT) of corruption, particularly former state minister Aaditya Thackeray. The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of Mumbai Police, along with the Enforcement Directorate (ED), is probing the alleged multi-crore scam, and earlier this month, the police registered a case against 13 persons, including contractors and civic officials. Mumbai: At the heart of the controversy over the Mithi river desilting project in Mumbai, being carried out by Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), is an alleged Rs 65 crore scam. Actor Dino Morea and his brother are among those being questioned in the case. The 18.3 km river, an arterial water body in the city, originates from Vihar and Powai lakes, which supply water to Mumbai, and flows through the city's western suburbs before joining Mahim Creek, and from there into the Arabian Sea. This river plays an important role as a natural stormwater drainage channel, carrying excess water during the monsoon. In 2005, overflow from the river was held as one of the reasons for the Mumbai deluge that claimed more than 1,000 lives. It put the state of the river, particularly the heavy pollution and silt accumulation due to settlements on its banks, in focus. Since then, BMC has been making efforts to clean the river and free it from silt and garbage before monsoon, to ensure the flow of the river is unobstructed. However, over the years, there have been allegations of corruption in the project. On 6 May, a First Information Report (FIR) was registered by a special investigation team (SIT) made up of officials from the EOW against 13 persons at Azad Maidan police station. It included five contractors, three middlemen, and two company officials. The FIR said BMC officials created tenders in a way that benefited a certain machinery supplier. Contractors then allegedly generated fake bills for transportation of the silt outside Mumbai, thereby inflicting a loss of more than Rs 65.54 crore on the civic body, it added. Also Read: Mantralaya to Marine Drive, why South Mumbai spots that have never seen flooding went underwater What does the FIR say In the FIR, Mumbai Police named BMC assistant engineer Prashant Ramugade, deputy chief engineers Ganesh Bendre and Prashant Tayshette, as well as Deepak Mohan, Kishore Menon, Jay Joshi, Ketan Kadam and Bhupendra Purohit, directors of Acute Designing, Kailash Construction Company, NA Construction, Nikhil Construction and JRS Infrastructure, respectively. Police are currently probing project work undertaken between 2021 and 2024. According to the FIR, a copy of which ThePrint has accessed, the alleged offences relate to transportation and dumping of silt, for which police say Acute Designs, Kailash Construction Company, NA Construction, Nikhil Construction and JRS Infrastructure in total submitted nine fake MoUs. BMC officers, the FIR added, did not verify the authenticity of the dumping sites mentioned in the MoUs, thus giving undue advantage to the contractors. They even approved bills based on fake documents related to the weighbridge and log sheets, the FIR said. The probe revealed that signatures of some of the landowners were forged. In some cases, MoUs were signed with people who did not own any land. According to the FIR, Deepak Mohan and Kishore Menon, who it said were also part of other companies, offered BMC silt pusher and multipurpose amphibious pontoon machines claiming to be representatives of the machinery supply company Matprop, at a cost of Rs 3.09 crore. Then, BMC officials visited the Matprop plant in Kerala. The civic body then floated a tender which had the exact same specifications as the Matprop machinery, leaving contractors no other option than to buy from them. 'We have evidence that when the contractor went to Matprop to purchase the machine, they directed him to a middleman who offered to rent the machines for two years for Rs 8 crore, and later settled for Rs 4 crore,' DCP Sangramsinh Nishandar told the media Tuesday. The FIR added that Deepak Mohan and Ketan Kadam of Matprop signed the MoUs, but machinery was rented by Virgo Specialities and Voder India for two years for Rs 8 crore—they later settled for Rs 4 crore. They also told the contractors that Jay Joshi is the owner of Virgo Specialities, and Kadam was looking after Voder India. Interestingly, Kadam is not a partner or director in either Virgo or Voder India but acted like a middleman, as did Joshi. Both were arrested earlier this month. 'This is how Matprop, in collusion with the BMC SWD division officials, forced the contractors to go to these two companies without the MoU and got more financial benefits from the contractors,' the FIR said. ThePrint reached Matprop via email for comment but had not received a response by the time of publication. This report will be updated if and when a response is received. The FIR charged BMC officials and contractors with conspiring to benefit from selling these machines at a higher rate. While the rate for desilting earlier was Rs 1,609 per metric ton, with these new machines, it went up to Rs 2,193 per metric ton. The FIR did, however, add that when BMC vigilance department objected to the inflated rate, the earlier rate was approved. The officials were also accused of making a payment of Rs 17.07 crore to the contractors. On 26 May, Joshi and Kadam were denied bail, and a court in Mumbai noted that it could not rule out that they would cause 'hurdles in the investigation' if released. 'If the accused are released on bail, the possibility of causing hurdles in the investigation cannot be ruled out,' the court held. Dino Morea link Actor Dino Morea and his brother Santino's names popped up while going through the calls and financial transactions of Ketan Kadam. According to the initial investigation, Santino repeatedly spoke to Kadam on the phone. EOW also found transactions linked to Kadam, which it said were suspicious, and was probing if they were also related to the Morea brothers. On 26 May, the brothers were questioned for eight hours, followed by another round of questioning on 28 May that went on for five hours. Politics over the alleged scam Since the Shiv Sena, before it split in 2022, controlled BMC for the last 25 years, Sanjay Nirupam from the now Eknath Shinde-led Sena allaged a link between the scam and Shiv Sena (UBT) MLA Aaditya Thackeray. 'Everyone in Mumbai knows that during that period, no contract could be awarded without the approval of 'Matoshree' (private residence of the Thackerays in Bandra). A total of 18 contractors were appointed for the Mithi river cleaning work during this time,' Nirupam told reporters on 26 May. 'Since (actor) Dino Morea has been questioned (in the scam) and as he is also a known associate of Aaditya Thackeray, his role must be investigated,' Nirupram added. Thackeray, while speaking to the media Tuesday, said he was happy that the desilting project is being probed. 'Whoever is guilty in this, needs to be jailed. In the Shinde regime, many scams took place, this could also be one of them, so let it be investigated.' (Edited by Sanya Mathur) Also Read: With a '13-storey' mountain of waste, why Deonar dumping ground closure is a challenging task
Hindustan Times
2 days ago
- Politics
- Hindustan Times
Oppn demands Shinde's resignation over scrapped MMRDA tender process
MUMBAI: Following the decision of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) to scrap the controversial tender process for the Thane-Ghodbunder-to-Bhayandar twin tunnels and elevated road projects, opposition parties targeted deputy chief minister Eknath Shinde, who has been heading the urban development department that governs MMRDA. Pointing out that he was first to raise the issue of the controversial tender process, Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Aaditya Thackeray on Saturday demanded the removal of Shinde from the state cabinet and a probe by the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) or the Enforcement Directorate (ED) into the entire episode. In July last year, MMRDA had issued a notice, inviting tenders for two public infrastructure projects. The first was the Road Tunnel project (Gaumukh to Fountain Hotel junction on the Thane-Ghodbunder Road), which envisaged 5-kilometre-long twin tunnels of 14.6-metre diameter at a cost of ₹8,000 crore. The second project was the construction of a 9.8-km-long elevated road over Vasai Creek. Larsen & Toubro (L&T), which was the lowest bidder, recently approached the Supreme Court saying that MMRDA had arbitrarily declared the Hyderabad-based Megha Engineering and Infrastructure Ltd (MEIL) as L1 (lowest) bidder for both the projects, despite its bid being higher than L&T's. The Supreme Court raised questions on the process, and on Friday, MMRDA told the court that the tender has been scrapped, and new tenders would be floated for these projects. 'I was the first to raise my voice over the tender process for the two projects in October 2024,' said Aaditya. 'With MMRDA scrapping the tender, it has been confirmed that there were irregularities, and the project was pushed ahead with an eye on the assembly elections.' Aaditya said that MMRDA, under Eknath Shinde, had floated a short-duration tender of only 20 days. 'This was done when Shinde was the chief minister and also the urban development minister,' he said. 'There was an irregularity at every step of the tender process. This was not possible unless approved by those who were handling the department. Therefore, Shinde should be removed from the position immediately.' Aaditya said that CM Devendra Fadnavis kept claiming from time to time that he was giving Maharashtra a clean administration. 'If Fadnavis is serious, there should be a probe of the tender issue by the EOW or ED,' he said. 'As Shinde is involved in the matter, he should be removed from the post of deputy CM and cabinet minister to ensure a transparent probe.' Maharashtra Congress chief Harshvardhan Sapkal alleged that the controversial tender was a ₹3,000-crore scam. 'MMRDA has cancelled the tender but the matter does not end here,' he said. 'This is a matter of deep-rooted corruption.' Sapkal declared that Fadnavis and Shinde had created a 'corruption corridor' in the state involving agencies like MMRDA, MHADA, CIDCO and SRA, and demanded a judicial probe into all major infrastructure projects taken up during the tenure of the two Mahayuti governments.
Time of India
2 days ago
- Time of India
Anchor Group director arrest illegal, holds HC
Mumbai: The Bombay High Court vacation bench on Friday declared the arrest of Anchor Group director Hemang Shah , 50, by Mumbai Police's Economic Offences Wing (EOW) as illegal, citing failure by police to produce him before a magistrate in 24 hours. The court ordered his immediate release from Arthur Road Jail. The vacation bench, comprising Justices Gauri Godse and Somasekhar Sundaresan, noted that chat messages between the wives of the two brothers supported Hemang Shah's claim that his arrest and continued custody were intended to recover the settlement amount in mediation between family members. The arrest was based on allegations of defrauding his elder brother, Mehul Shah, of Rs 67 crore. Hemang Shah petitioned the HC, arguing that his arrest was illegal since he was not produced before a magistrate within 24 hours as required by law. He was detained at Delhi airport at 5.30 pm on May 17 and produced in court only at 10.45 pm on May 18. The HC agreed, stating that his arrest "without producing him before the nearest magistrate within 24 hours is completely illegal" and infringes on fundamental rights under Article 22(2), which mandates such production. The FIR by the elder brother was lodged with Malabar Hill police station in South Mumbai at 2.14 am, and a Look Out Circular (LOC) was issued at the police station's request. The dispute, being resolved before a mediator, is between Hemang on one side and his brother and their father on the other. The FIR was filed during mediation, and Hemang, scheduled to fly to Muscat from Delhi on May 17, was apprehended at the airport due to the LOC. Police stated they arrested him on May 18 after the immigration department handed him over at 4.30 am, and then he was brought to Mumbai. Senior counsel for the elder brother—the complainant—argued that the immigration officers cannot be considered police officers, and hence his custody after being "accosted" at the airport was not an "arrest" by police officers. The EOW's arrest memo states he was arrested on May 18 at 7.30 pm. The HC bench said, "In our view, the act of the Immigration Officers to accost the petitioner or detain him on 17th May 2025 at 1730 hours is the act of arrest, and therefore the period of 24 hours as contemplated under Section 58 of BNS and Article 22(2) of the Constitution of India shall begin on 17th May 2025 at 1730 hours." The High Court, however, clarified that its observations were only to decide his plea regarding his illegal arrest and would not influence the trial or merits of the case.
Time of India
2 days ago
- Business
- Time of India
Bombay High Court holds businessman's arrest in Rs 67 cr case illegal, orders his release
Representative image MUMBAI: The Bombay High Court vacation bench on Friday declared the arrest of Anchor Group director Hemang Shah , 50, by Mumbai Police's Economic Offences Wing (EOW) as illegal, citing failure by police to produce him before a magistrate in 24 hours. The court ordered his immediate release from Arthur Road Jail. The vacation bench, comprising Justices Gauri Godse and Somasekhar Sundaresan, noted that chat messages between the wives of the two brothers supported Hemang Shah's claim that his arrest and continued custody were intended to recover the settlement amount in mediation between family members. The arrest was based on allegations of defrauding his elder brother, Mehul Shah, of Rs 67 crore. Hemang Shah petitioned the HC, arguing that his arrest was illegal since he was not produced before a magistrate within 24 hours as required by law. He was detained at Delhi airport at 5.30 pm on May 17 and produced in court only at 10.45 pm on May 18. The HC agreed, stating that his arrest "without producing him before the nearest magistrate within 24 hours is completely illegal" and infringes on fundamental rights under Article 22(2), which mandates such production. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Trading CFD dengan Teknologi dan Kecepatan Lebih Baik IC Markets Mendaftar Undo The FIR by the elder brother was lodged with Malabar Hill police station in South Mumbai at 2.14 am, and a Look Out Circular (LOC) was issued at the police station's request. The dispute, being resolved before a mediator, is between Hemang on one side and his brother and their father on the other. The FIR was filed during mediation, and Hemang, scheduled to fly to Muscat from Delhi on May 17, was apprehended at the airport due to the LOC. Police stated they arrested him on May 18 after the immigration department handed him over at 4.30 am, and then he was brought to Mumbai. Senior counsel for the elder brother-the complainant-argued that the immigration officers cannot be considered police officers, and hence his custody after being "accosted" at the airport was not an "arrest" by cops. The EOW's arrest memo states he was arrested on May 18 at 7.30 pm. The HC bench said, "In our view, the act of the Immigration Officers to accost the petitioner or detain him on 17th May 2025 at 1730 hours is the act of arrest, and therefore the period of 24 hours as contemplated under Section 58 of BNS and Article 22(2) of the Constitution of India shall begin on 17th May 2025 at 1730 hours."
