Rs 100 Cr Covid scam by BMC Standing Comm. chairman Yashwant Jadhav, wife Yamini Jadhav: Kirit Somaiya

MUMBAI: Even as Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Kirit Somaiya accused Yeshwant Jadhav, chairman of the Shiv Sena-led Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s (BMC) standing committee, and his wife Yamini of suspected tax evasion and money laundering, the income tax department raided several premises owned by the Jadhavs’ today. Yamini Jadhav is the ruling Shiv Sena MLA from Byculla in Mumbai.

IT department officers said Jadhav’s Mazgaon residence was being searched and sleuths were scrutinizing documents including bank accounts of his family. Premises of a few BMC contractors were also searched by IT officials in a an morning operation on Friday.

Yashwant Jadhav is the head of the BMC’s standing committee, which is considered the most important civic panel in BMC, since 2019. The panel approves proposals involving an expenditure of over ₹50 lakh. The BMC is one of the richest civic bodies in the country with an annual budget of over ₹45,000 crore.

Somaiya has accused Jadhav of involvement in money laundering to park money obtained from alleged scams.

According to reports, days after BJP leader Kirit Somaiya publicly exposed Jadhav and said that he created bogus companies to loot public money during the COVID pandemic and probably before that.

Kirit Somaiya had requested the ED, Income Tax and the Election Commission to probe into the Jadhavs’ Rs 100 crore scam.

In December 2021, Somaiya sent complaints to the Election Commission, Tax Department and the ED against MLA Yamini Jadhav, Yashwant Jadhav and their sons Yatin and Nikhil for creating bogus companies like Pradhan dealers, Skylink commercials, Super Soft suppliers, etc and using them to divert public money. “BMC’s contractor’s money and Yashwantrao’s scam will be exposed soon”, he had said.

The 100 crore COVID scam was exposed by Somaiya on February 5 when he accused Shiv Sena’s Sanjay Raut and his associate Sujit Patkar of corruption in the allotment of COVID centre contracts to entities on paper in Pune and Mumbai.

He revealed that the COVID care centre contracts were given by the Thackeray-led Maharashtra govt to non-existent companies and an amount of Rs 32 crores was usurped in the process.

Meanwhile, BJP leader Atul Bhatkhalkar confirmed development and said that Yashwant Jadhav and Shiv Sena leaders had shared contracts worth Rs 100 crore for COVID care Centers in Mumbai.

“It’s high time now Mumbaikars know about these frauds. The income tax department should have raided Jadhav and his properties long back. He is primarily involved in the COVID fraud case”, stated Atul Bhatkhalkar adding that BJP will dig out the frauds committed by the Shiv Sena in Maharashtra.

According to media reports, Jadhav created several fake or shell companies specifically to loot the public money. He swindled crores by diverting huge amounts through these fake companies.

Somaiya in a series of tweets alleged that Jadhav parked Rs 15 crores in one of his bogus companies named Pradhan Dealers through a hawala operator Uday Shankar Mahavar. The money was then sent to the UAE and re-routed to Jadhav’s family member’s accounts.

In another case of corruption by Jadhav, Somaiya had released an audio clip in which Jadhav was heard asking monetary favours from Suraj Pratap Singh Deora of Yash Corporations to withdraw from the contract of development works worth Rs 2.17 crores in Byculla.

As Deora expressed their inability to cater to the needs of Jadhav, he had threatened Deora against continuing to work with the BMC.

On Thursday, Somaiya also slammed the Thackeray-led government in Maharashtra for allegedly indulging in corruption and further released a list of 12 of its representatives for looting the public money.

The list includes Anil Parab, Sanjay Raut, Sujeet Patker, Bhavna Gavali, Anand Adsul, Ajit Pawar, Hasan Mushriff, Pratap Sarnaik, Ravindra Waikar, Jitendra Awhad, Anil Deshmukh and Nawab Malik. Malik was arrested by the ED in a money laundering case on Wednesday.

As the IT raid continued at the Jadhav’s premises’ in Mumbai, Somaiya has added two more names in the list which he termed as Thackeray Sarkar’s ‘Dirty Dozen’. He added Yashwant and Yamini Jadhav and Mumbai Mayor Kishori Pednekar to the list of alleged fraudsters.

The IT raid comes ahead of the BMC elections that are likely to happen in late March or early April this year. As a team of tax department officials is undertaking the raids against Jadhav, the ED officials are also said to have reached the premises and are investigating into the case. Jadhav’s wife Yamini Jadhav is the party MLA from the Byculla constituency.