Covid body bag 'scam': ED summons former Mumbai mayor Kishori Pednekar

The Enforcement Directorate ED on Friday issued summon to former Mumbai mayor Kishori Pednekar and asked her to appear before the agency on January 25 in connection with the Covid body bag scam the ANI reportedEarlier in November last year ED had summoned the Uddhav Thackerayled Shiv Sena UBT leader and in connection with the caseAccording to the ANI the ED investigations has claimed that a company was allegedly providing body bags for dead Covid patients to another company for Rs 2000 and that company was further providing the same body bags to the Central Procurement Department for Rs 6800 and its contract was allegedly signed by the then Mumbai mayor Kishori PednekarA case was also registered by the Mumbai Police against Kishori PednekarEarlier Mumbai Polices Economic Offences Wing EOW had summoned the former Deputy Commissioner of the BMCs Central Purchase Department CPD Ramakant Biradar to probe into the allegations of irregularities involved in purchasing body bags for deceased Covid19 patientsMeanwhile in an another casethe ED had on Wednesday arrested Suraj Chavan a close aide of Shiv Sena UBT leader Aditya Thackeray in connection with the 637 crore Khichdi scam the officials saidThe ED had initiated a money laundering case based on the FIR filed by Mumbai Polices Economic Offense Wing EOW After months of investigation the EOW and the ED recorded Chavanrsquos statement multiple times leading to his arrestIn September last year the EOW initiated an FIR against six individuals for alleged misappropriation of R637 crore and financial irregularities related to BMCs contract for distributing khichdi to migrant workers during the pandemic The FIR registered at the Agripada police station names Sujit Patkar a close associate of Sanjay Raut Sunil alias Bala Kadam Rajeev Salunkhe of Sahyadri Refreshments employees of Force One Multi Services Sneha Catererrsquos partners and an assistant municipal commissioner planning along with other unidentified BMC officialsAccording to the FIR the contract was intended for a company equipped with the necessary kitchens and certifications from health and related departments to prepare khichdi for 5000 people daily However the contracts were awarded to Sahyadri Refreshments and Vaishnavi Kitchen neither of which possessed these requirements and they subsequently subcontracted the work Similarly Force One lacked the necessary kitchen facilities and subcontracted the production of khichdi The FIR also suggests that as per the contract each packet of khichdi was supposed to weigh 300 grams but the accused parties provided packets weighing only 100200 grams to migrant workerswith ANI inputs