Overview

• Morea and his brother Santino were first summoned on June 12 to record statements under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.
• ED search operations on June 6 covered 18 sites in Mumbai, Kochi and Thrissur, including residential and office premises of the Morea brothers, civic engineers and alleged intermediaries.
• The probe is based on a May FIR by the Mumbai Police’s EOW into suspicious cartel activity that inflated desilting contract costs and caused over ₹65 crore in losses.
• Officials are examining financial transactions and shell company records to determine if the Moreas received proceeds from the manipulated BMC tenders.
• Investigators are also scrutinizing Morea’s links to middleman Ketan Kadam and his ties to Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Aaditya Thackeray as part of the widening inquiry.