Forged Papers, Inflated Bills: 2 Arrested In Rs 65 Crore Mithi River Scam

The Mumbai Police Economic Offences Wing (EOW) has arrested two contractors in the ongoing Mithi River desilting scam, deepening a probe that has uncovered years of alleged collusion, forged documents and inflated bills within the city's storm-water management system.

The accused have been identified as Sunil Upadhyay, director of SNB Infrastructure Private Limited, and Mahesh Purohit, partner at MB Brewers Firm. Both were taken into custody on Wednesday after investigators found they had allegedly obtained crores of rupees from the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) without carrying out the silt-removal work they were paid for.

The Mithi River, which cuts through some of Mumbai's most densely populated areas, is central to the city's monsoon flood-mitigation planning. Any failure in its desilting operations directly threatens the city's drainage capacity, a fact that makes the alleged scam especially serious.

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Forged MoUs, Fake Signatures

According to the EOW, the accused prepared forged Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) and allegedly faked signatures of landowners whose properties were shown as "launch pads" for silt disposal. These fabricated documents were submitted to the BMC as proof of work, enabling the contractors to raise inflated bills and claim payments.

Investigators believe the scam operated over a decade, from 2013 to 2023, through coordinated efforts involving contractors, middlemen and officials from the BMC's Storm Water Drainage (SWD) Department.

Tender Manipulation, Inflated Bills

Investigators have found that tenders floated between 2021 and 2024 were deliberately altered to include specific machinery requirements, such as silt pushers and truck-mounted equipment, without verifying the actual need. This tender engineering allegedly helped favoured contractors secure higher rates for per-metric-ton removal of silt from the Mithi River.
This manipulation resulted in a significant financial loss to the civic body. Separate probe documents estimate the loss at over Rs 65 crore, making it one of the largest desilting-related scams pursued by Mumbai Police in recent years.

Earlier Arrests

Upadhyay and Purohit are the latest to be arrested in the case. The EOW had earlier arrested Ketan Kadam, Jai Joshi, and contractor Shersingh Rathore, all accused of acting as brokers or preparing forged documents used to generate fake bills.

An EOW official said, "The pattern is now clear, forged MoUs, falsified land-use permissions, fake photographs and videos of silt-removal work, and billing for machinery that was never deployed."

Read | 82% Of Pre-Monsoon Silting Done In Mumbai, 61% In Mithi River Amid Scam Probe

Court Remand Granted

The two newly arrested accused were produced before the Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate, who remanded them to police custody till December 16. Officials said more arrests are expected as forensic verification of documents, machinery logs and financial transactions continues.

Civic sources said the revelations have increased pressure on the BMC to overhaul its procurement processes and strengthen on-ground verification of work orders. Both the EOW and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) are expected to expand the probe, including tracing financial beneficiaries who profited from forged tenders and billing cycles.