India, Aug. 22 -- The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Mumbai Police on Thursday arrested a 49-year-old contractor in connection with the multi-crore Mithi river desilting fraud that has caused losses of over Rs.65 crore to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC).

The accused, Shersingh Rathore, owner of Maindeep Enterprises and a resident of Borivali West, had been awarded the contract to remove silt from the Mithi river - one of Mumbai's most crucial drainage channels - in 2021-22. Instead of removing silt, investigators said, Rathore allegedly filled trucks with construction debris and uploaded photographs on the BMC's work monitoring software (WMS) to claim payments.

Preliminary checks by the EOW revealed that in at least 67...