The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has awarded a Rs 14-crore contract for managing the city’s trash booms to a private firm it had disqualified twice earlier following an FIR against its then part-owner in the Mithi river de-silting case linked to alleged collusion with contractors and “wrongful loss” of over Rs 65 crore to the civic body.

Records reviewed by show the latest contract was awarded after the company, Virgo Specialities Pvt Ltd, asserted the Mithi FIR was not against the company but against its then director Jay Joshi, who has since stepped down. The BMC, after seeking legal opinion, cleared Virgo as technically eligible for the trash boom tender.

The last available Registrar of Companies (RoC) records, dated March 31, 2025, show that Joshi held 60 per cent of Virgo’s shares, with the remaining 40 per cent held by his wife, Krupa Jay Joshi — making him the company’s majority shareholder at the time.

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When contacted, Virgo said Joshi “has had no role, involvement, or participation in the activities or operations of the Company, either physically or in relation to its shareholding” since he stepped down. BMC records show Joshi ceased to be a director at Virgo in August 2025.

Trash booms are floating waste barriers made of durable materials like plastic or metal that float on water and are anchored in place to catch debris flowing through drains and canals.

The BMC tender, issued on March 10, sought an agency to operate and maintain these systems at six locations in the western suburbs, with four firms submitting bids. Records show that Virgo quoted about Rs 14 crore, around Rs 40 lakh lower than the second-lowest bidder, and was approved for the two-year contract on July 30.

The tender carried a specific eligibility condition: contractors “who are blacklisted or against whom FIR has been filed” would not be eligible to participate. The BMC had invoked this clause to disqualify Virgo at least twice in earlier tenders, taking into account the FIR registered by the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) in the Mithi case, according to a senior civic official. The two earlier tenders were related to work for the civic body’s hydraulic engineering department.

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When it came to the trash-boom contract, Virgo submitted a representation to the BMC contending that the Mithi FIR had no connection with the company, since it named Joshi personally — and asserting that its current directors, Krupa Jay Joshi and Ketan Dave, had no litigation against them.

The wording of the tender condition proved to be a key factor: it barred contractors against whom an FIR had been filed but did not explicitly say whether the restriction would apply when the FIR was against a director in his personal capacity.

The same condition was present in the earlier tenders, too, where Virgo had been disqualified. This time, however, taking into account Virgo’s submission, the BMC sought an opinion from its legal team. The advice was an FIR against a director for acts allegedly committed in his personal capacity, without liability being established against the company, could not by itself be used to disqualify the firm, the senior official said.

“On that legal position, we could not technically continue with the disqualification,” the official said.

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Responding to queries from , Virgo said in a statement: “The FIR was filed against Jay Joshi in his personal capacity, along with certain other BMC officers and firms that are directly involved in contracts with BMC for desilting work. The FIR was not filed against M/s Virgo Specialties Private Limited.”

It said the company “had not executed any contract with BMC for desilting work in relation to the Mithi River project till date”. “Accordingly, the EOW registered the FIR against Jay Joshi in his individual capacity and not against the Company. Joshi and M/s Virgo Specialties Private Limited are separate and distinct legal entities in the eyes of law. Therefore, any proceedings initiated against Jay Joshi in his personal capacity should not be construed as proceedings against the Company,” it said.

The Mithi FIR names “Virgo Specialities Pvt Ltd’s Jay Joshi” among the accused. The FIR, registered by Maharashtra’s EOW on May 6, 2025, relates to work undertaken in 2021-22 and 2022-23 and alleges a wrongful loss of Rs 65.54 crore to the civic body. It alleges that Joshi, BMC officials, contractors and machinery suppliers colluded to manipulate civic tenders for Mithi desilting work.

A June 5, 2025, Sessions Court bail order notes that Virgo had entered into a tripartite agreement on January 9, 2021, for the supply of specialised machines. It says Ketan Kadam, identified as Virgo’s CEO, signed the agreement on behalf of the company.

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The court order also states that Virgo subsequently entered into machine-hiring agreements with contractors. The prosecution alleged that the arrangements formed part of a conspiracy to compel contractors to hire specialised machinery at inflated rates.

Joshi was arrested on May 7, 2025. The EOW subsequently filed a chargesheet running into more than 7,000 pages, and he was granted bail in June 2025.

The latest BMC contract covers 5,400 shifts for operating and maintaining the trash booms and another 5,400 shifts for transporting waste collected from them. Virgo has handled this work before: in 2021, the BMC selected the company for a project worth around Rs 48 crore to supply, install and maintain trash boom barges at several locations, commissioned in July 2022.

reached out to BMC Commissioner Ashwini Bhide with queries on Virgo’s eligibility, its earlier disqualification and the legal opinion behind the latest tender. She was unavailable for comment. also reached out to Jay Joshi’s lawyer by phone and text seeking a response. The lawyer was unavailable for comment.