The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has filed a chargesheet against businessman Sujit Patkar in the Jumbo COVID Center fraud case in a special court for money laundering. Patkar is Shiv Sena (UBT) Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Raut’s friend, and as per Patkar, a business partner in Lifesciences Hospital and Management firm. Though Raut has denied that he is a business partner and has maintained that they were friends.
The ED said that the accused used the reference of his friend Shiv Sena (UBT) Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Raut to meet additional municipal commissioner Sanjeev Jaiswal during the pandemic to discuss Worli COVID jumbo hospital tenders for Dahisar and Worli in Maharashtra.
Before forming his company, Patkar allegedly sent a letter to IAS Sanjeev Jaiswal under the letterhead of Lifeline Hospital Management Services (LHMS). “As he (Jaiswal) was not available, Patkar had used Sanjay Raut’s name as a reference for him (Sanjeev Jaiswal) to seek a response,” the chargesheet stated.
Meanwhile, Patkar maintained that he did not request a favour from Sanjay Raut. “Due to his (Patkar’s) proximity to a politically exposed person, he managed to gather prior information about the tender process. Thereafter, he along with other partners set up their firm LHMS so the tender could be awarded in favour of their firm,” the ED stated in the chargesheet.
“The said firm despite being a new company established on 26.06.2020 and possessed no experience of providing medical services, the tender got allotted to the firm,” the chargesheet added.
The ED in its chargesheet also stated that the LHMS distributed laptops, cash, and gold biscuits to some officials of the BMC. Sujit Patkar, Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut’s close aide, owns the firm identified by the ED. The ED claims that the firm made unlawful and wrongful excess gains totalling more than Rs 21 crore. Patkar is one of Lifeline’s primary partners with a 30% stake, but he only invested Rs 12,500 when the company was formed, according to the ED chargesheet.
Patkar cleared all invoices with the help of BMC officials, including Dr. Kishore Bisure, Dean of Dahisar Jumbo COVID Centre. According to the ED, both Patkar and Bisure benefited from this illegal act, and as a result, the arrangement of under-deployment of medical staff went unnoticed.
The ED asserted that Lifeline Hospital Management Services obtained a tender for the supply of staff members to the Jumbo COVID facilities in Dahisar and Worli from July 2020 to February 2022 using forged documents.
The investigation agency additionally stated that bills for faked employee attendance at the Dahisar facility were filed. Furthermore, the firm did not provide any attendance or personnel data to the Worli COVID Centres. Despite this, the firm managed to have the invoices cleared and earned approximately Rs 32 crore from the city administration between September 2020 and June 2022, with the help of BMC officials.
According to the department, the massive under-deployment of medical personnel has put the valuable lives of COVID-19 patients at risk. The ED further stated that Lifeline had lost a contract with the Pune Municipal Region Development Authority, which the company never disclosed.
