Dino Morea reached the ED office situated at Ballard Estate in south Mumbai at around 10:30 am on June 19, after being summoned by the investigative agency. Dino Morea has been under the radar by the agencies, the problems for the actor does not seems to ease out anytime soon.
Dino Morea. File Pic
Problems for veteran Bollywood actor Dino Morea do not seem to be getting eased out. Dino Morea, on June 19, appeared before the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to record his statement in connection with a money laundering probe linked to an alleged Rs 65 crore Mithi river desilting scam, officials said.
It has been reported by PTI that Dino Morea reached the ED office situated at Ballard Estate in south Mumbai at around 10:30 am on June 19, after being summoned by the investigative agency, an official said.
Dino Morea’s statement will be recorded, as some financial transactions have been found allegedly linked to him and some accused persons arrested earlier by the Mumbai Police's Economic Offences Wing in connection with the Mithi River desilting scam, the official said.
While Dino Morea was expected to visit the ED office, a large number of media persons were present outside the probe agency's office.
“Earlier on June 12, Morea was questioned by the ED officials for several hours. The ED on June 6 conducted searches at more than 15 locations in Mumbai and Kochi in Kerala, including the premises of Dino Morea in the Bandra (West) area here, those linked to his brother Santino, some Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) officials, and contractors, among others,” official sources earlier said.
The searches were conducted in Kochi as one of the companies that provided desilting equipment to the BMC. Matprop Technical Services Pvt Ltd is based in this city, they said.
The investigation is being conducted under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), the sources had said.
The ED case stems from a Mumbai Police Economic Offences Wing (EOW) FIR filed in May against 13 persons, including contractors and civic officials, for an alleged Rs 65.54 crore scam in tenders awarded from 2017 to 2023 for desilting of the Mithi River, which flows through Mumbai and acts as a stormwater drainage channel for the metro city.
The Uddhav Thackeray-led undivided Shiv Sena controlled the cash-rich BMC from 1997 till the party's split in 2022. After the expiry of the general body in 2022, the civic body was controlled by the state government, which was then headed by Eknath Shinde.
It was alleged by the police in their complaint that BMC officials tailored the tender for the desilting contract in such a way that it benefited a particular supplier of machinery, and the contractors reportedly generated fraudulent bills for transporting the sludge out of Mumbai.
The 49-year-old actor and his brother were questioned by the Mumbai Police EOW in this case last month also.
The Morea brothers, it is understood, were questioned by the police about their alleged links with alleged middleman Ketan Kadam, arrested in the case along with another accused, Jai Joshi, apart from some financial transactions made in a company linked to Santino.
Kadam and Joshi, according to police, were involved in the renting out of 'silt pusher' machines and multi-purpose amphibious pontoon machines to contractors who were carrying out Mithi River desilting work.
The plan to desilt the river was planned by the Mumbai civic authorities following the 2005 floods, which brought the city to a grinding halt.
(With PTI Inputs)
Subscribe today by clicking the link and stay updated with the latest news!" Click here!
