MUMBAI, 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 instances, debris was passed off as river silt, allowing the contractor to pocket around Rs.29 crore. Rathore also allegedly submitted three fake Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) for land to dump the debris. Investigators found that two landowners had never signed any agreements, while the third "landlord", Bhaskar Tare, had died in January 2021-three months before an MoU supposedly bearing his signature was submitted. Rathore also signed MoUs with businessmen Jay Joshi, 49, and Ketan Kadam, 50, who allegedly promised to supply specialised silt-removal machinery. Rathore was produced before a metropolitan magistrate's court and remanded in police custody till August 26....