A Mumbai sessions court has granted anticipatory bail to a contractor named in the alleged INR 65 crore Mithi river desilting scam, ruling that the police had ample opportunity to arrest him since the case was first registered but chose not to do so. Businessman Lokesh Jain, a partner at M/s Bhumika Transport, approached the sessions court through advocates Poonam Ankleshwaria and Prathamesh Parkar, disputing the prosecution's allegations of forgery and cheating against him. 
According to the prosecution, Jain had secured a contract for desilting work covering the 2023-2025 period and, in the process, submitted forged documents to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), causing it wrongful financial loss. Investigators alleged that Jain's firm hired two Silt Pushing Pontoon Machines and Multipurpose Amphibious Pontoon Machines, or Truxor units, from M/s Woder India LLP, a company owned by co-accused Ketan Kadam, for INR 1.91 crore, even though Kadam's company had not purchased the equipment itself. The prosecution further alleged that Jain prepared forged log sheets of silt transportation, along with photographs meant to show material being moved, and submitted these to the civic body. His firm is alleged to have received INR 24.49 crore from the BMC for the work. 
The defence pushed back on these claims, arguing that contractors were required under the tender conditions to submit memoranda of understanding from machine manufacturers or suppliers to demonstrate access to the necessary equipment, and that this was precisely why Jain entered into a hire agreement with Woder India LLP. The defence also pointed out that weighbridge receipts and photographs documenting the transport of desilted material had been verified by a BMC team, which recorded 90 per cent completion of the work as of end-May 2024. This team, comprising five officers, had reportedly visited the desilting sites periodically, flagged deficiencies where they arose, imposed penalties as needed, and recorded compliance once those deficiencies were addressed. 
In its order, the court noted that the alleged conspiracy in the case had originated in 2020, whereas Jain had only obtained his desilting contract for 2023-2025, meaning he could not be tied to the earlier stages of the conspiracy. The court also pointed out that the case was registered in May 2025 and that Jain had visited the investigating officer's office on multiple occasions during that period without being arrested. It added that the documents Jain had submitted along with his tender and during the course of the desilting work had already been seized by investigators from the concerned Storm Water Drains department officials, leaving little left to be recovered from Jain himself. 
The Mithi river desilting scam has drawn sustained scrutiny since the case was first registered, with the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) booking 13 people, including BMC officials and private contractors, over alleged large-scale irregularities in the award and execution of desilting contracts between 2017 and 2023. Investigators have alleged that tenders for hiring specialised dredging equipment were manipulated to favour select suppliers, while contractors separately generated fraudulent bills for transporting sludge out of the city. The BMC is estimated to have suffered a loss exceeding INR 65.54 crore as a result. 
The probe has already led to multiple arrests. Contractor Shershing Rathod was taken into custody after investigators found he had allegedly created fake MoUs, including one bearing the signature of a deceased person, and had received around INR 26.92 crore through bogus bills despite not carrying out the desilting work he claimed to have completed. Middleman Ketan Kadam and Jai Joshi, a director at Virgo Specialties, were arrested earlier in the investigation. The Enforcement Directorate has also stepped in with a parallel money laundering probe, carrying out searches at more than 15 locations across Mumbai and Kochi, including premises linked to actor Dino Morea and his brother Santino, who were later questioned over alleged contact with individuals connected to the case. 
The Mithi river, which originates from the overflow of Vihar Lake within the Sanjay Gandhi National Park and eventually drains into the Arabian Sea via Mahim Creek, runs through several densely populated stretches of the city, including Saki Naka, Kurla, Kalina, Bandra-Kurla Complex, Dharavi and Mahim. Regular desilting of the river is considered essential to prevent flooding, a concern that has remained prominent in the city's civic planning since the July 2005 deluge, when the river's overflow caused extensive inundation across large parts of Mumbai. 
Jain's anticipatory bail marks another development in a case that continues to widen in scope, with the EOW and the ED pursuing parallel criminal and financial trails. While the court's order offers relief to one of the accused, it does not settle the broader questions the scam has raised about oversight in the BMC's tendering process and the verification of contractor claims for public works. With several other accused still facing custodial proceedings and the ED's money laundering investigation ongoing, the case is likely to remain under watch as a test of how effectively civic infrastructure contracts are monitored in Mumbai going forward.