MUMBAI, July 18 -- A sessions court on Friday granted anticipatory bail to contractor Lokesh Onkarlal Jain, an accused in the alleged Rs.65-crore Mithi river desilting scam, holding that the EOW had failed to make out a prima facie case requiring his custodial interrogation. Jain, a partner of Bhumika Transport, is accused of using forged machine-hire agreements, fabricated MOUs for dumping sites, fake transport records and manipulated photos to fraudulently obtain Rs.24.49 crore from the BMC for desilting work between 2023 and 2024. He was named a wanted accused during the investigation, though not initially in the FIR. Granting relief, the additional sessions judge N.G. Shukla held that the prosecution's allegations were not borne out by the material placed before the court. The judge noted that inspection records confirmed the deployment of the desilting machines and citing an earlier Bombay High Court order in the case of a co-accused, observed, "Prima facie, it cannot be said that the agreement of hire is a forged document." The court also rejected the EOW's claim that no desilting work had been carried out, relying on BMC inspection reports and a work completion certificate. The judge further observed that Jain had cooperated with the probe and held that custodial interrogation was unnecessary, the court granted him anticipatory bail. The case stems from an EOW FIR registered in May 2025 against contractors, BMC officials and middlemen over alleged irregularities in Mithi river desilting contracts....