Rat scam: firm shut down in 2008, says family of director

Vinayak Majoor Sahakari Santha (VMSS), the company that was hired to exterminate rats in Mantralaya, allegedly does not exist at the address mentioned in the contract. Former Revenue Minister and senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Eknath Khadse recently exposed an alleged scam in the rat-killing contract at the Secratariat.

The family members of the late Amol Shedge, who was the director of the company, will approach the State government on Monday to register their protest and inform them about the fraud. Amol’s brother, Vinay Shedge, said the former died in 2008. The family has no knowledge about who has been running the company since, and claim that someone may be running the business by forging Amol’s signature.

Mr. Shedge said the family had approached the Byculla police after the news about the firm’s involvement in the rat-killing contract emerged, but the officers asked them to approach the State government first.

“My father, Anand, formed VMSS in 2002 and my brother was its director. One of our acquaintances, Waman Deokar, took the company’s documents from us and said he would help us if we needed his assistance. After my brother died, we were told VMSS has been closed down,” said Mr. Shedge, who works in a hospital in Mumbai.

Kept in the dark

He asked how it was possible for a company that shut down in 2008 to get a contract in 2016. “Either [Mr. Deokar] was lying and kept us in the dark or someone else used the [company’s] name. Hence, we have decided to approach the government directly in Monday with the documents available with us,” he said.

Mr. Khadse had attacked his own government using data obtained under the Right to Information (RTI) Act, which said 3,19,400 rats were killed in a week’s time in Mantralaya.

The next day, BJP spokesperson Ram Kadam had said the figure was not of rats killed, but of tablets used to exterminate the rodents.