Mithi River desilting: ED summons actor Dino Morea, BMC officials

Enforcement Directorate (ED) officials at the premises of actor Dino Morea during a search linked to the Mithi River desilting scam, at Bandra (West) area, in Mumbai, on June 6, 2025. | Photo Credit: PTI

At least eight people, including actor Dino Morea, his brother, and some BMC officials have been summoned by the Enforcement Directorate for questioning next week in a money laundering case linked to an alleged ₹65 crore worth Mithi River desilting "scam", official sources said on Saturday (June 7, 2025).

The notices came after the federal probe agency on Friday (June 6, 2025) searched more than 15 premises linked to these people in Mumbai in Maharashtra and Kochi in Kerala.

"Around eight to nine people, including actor Dino Morea, his brother Santino and some Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) officials, have been asked to appear before the agency at the ED office in Mumbai on different dates next week," a source said.

Their statements will be recorded under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) once they depose, he said.

Dino Morea's house in the Bandra (West) area, apart from premises linked to his brother, and those of BMC officials and contractors, were searched by the ED on Friday.

The ED case stems from a Mumbai Police economic offences wing (EOW) FIR filed in May against 13 people, including contractors and civic officials, for an alleged Rs 65.54 crore scam in the tenders awarded from 2017-2023 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 its 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.

Morea and his brother were questioned by the Mumbai Police EOW in this case last month. The 49-year-old actor has been questioned twice by police.

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.

This is the second time that the actor has been in the crosshairs of the ED, as, in 2021, the agency had attached his assets as part of a money laundering investigation linked to an alleged bank fraud case against Gujarat-based pharmaceutical company Sterling Biotech and its promoters.

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.

Published - June 07, 2025 12:47 pm IST