The officials are now examining recruitments made in other wards as well. (File)
Four men who were hired as sweepers by BMC, allegedly on the basis of forged documents, have told the Mahim police that they paid between Rs 1 lakh to Rs 2 lakh to civic officials for get the jobs.
On July 7, the Mahim police had booked nine persons – the four who got the jobs, four civic officials and a middleman – after receiving a complaint from the BMC, which detected the alleged cash for jobs scam during an internal audit.
While the four men were working at G North ward, the BMC’s own internal investigation has detected at least 53 similar appointments in two other wards. The officials are now examining recruitments made in other wards as well.
The scam allegedly made use of a BMC policy of hiring family members of Class IV employees – in the job description of “sweepers” – who either retire or die while in service.
The police said the four men – Avinash Dilip Kunchikorve, Ashish Jayantilal Babaria, Harmesh Kashore Kakhaiya and Ganesh Nagappa Kunchikorve – were hired on compassionate grounds as replacement of only one woman. While the BMC has suspended them, they have been booked on charges of conspiracy, cheating and forgery.
The BMC officials, who are alleged to have connived in their recruitment, are administrative officer (AO) Kishan Bande, his subordinate and clerk Harshal Shelke and supervisor Tanaji Ghag in G North ward.
After a similar scam came into fore at L and K West wards, the three were suspended along with then assistant head supervisor Gyaneshwar Walkoli and clerk Devendra Gaikwad (L ward) as well as AO Arunkumar Gaikwad (K West) on February 15.
However, BMC recently reinstated Bande, Walkoli, Devendra Gaikwad and Arunkumar Gaikwad citing manpower crunch due to the Covid-19 pandemic. On July 7, Bande, Shelke, Ghag and another AO, Nita Surve, were booked on the same charges as the four sweepers.
The alleged scam first came up in January 2019 when a clerk found during an internal audit that the four sweepers, while working from September 10, 2018 to January 19, 2019, had not drawn their salaries.
Digging into their paperwork, she found their documentation was incomplete. But it was her discovery that all four had been hired as replacements of the same person, Deepika Rupesh Kamble, that set the alarm bells ringing. Further, BMC could not trace Kamble’s service records. Nor had the four men complained that they were not being paid.
“We learnt that the four persons posed as relatives of Kamble and got employed in G North ward. Preliminary investigation showed that they had forged some documents that had bogus dispatch numbers and signatures and submitted the same to BMC,” a senior civic official said.
After a similar scam was noticed at L ward, a complaint was lodged with the BMC chief. After preliminary inquiry, the BMC’s vigilance team found irregularities in L and K West wards in the hiring of 23 and 30 sweepers, respectively.
The inquiry report was then submitted to the commissioner, following which an order to suspend the BMC employees was issued on February 15. Subsequently, another order to stop the salaries of the sweepers, who have procured jobs illegally, was issued.
BMC Chief Inquiry Officer Amit Kane said, “I won’t be able to comment till our inquiry is over. A probe is being conducted in other wards as well.”
Sources said that while complaint applications for the alleged scam in G North, L and K West wards were submitted at Mahim, Kurla and DN Nagar police stations, respectively, so far only Mahim police has taken cognizance of the matter.
Another person, Murgan Kukuswami, has also been booked for allegedly acting as a middleman between them and the BMC officials.
Assistant Inspector Bhaskar Kokare said, “Last February, Ghag had filed the complaint application and today he has been booked. We had to trace the four sweepers and after their statements were recorded, the case was registered. We are yet to make an arrest.”