India, Dec. 22 -- The COVID-19 pandemic was India's darkest hour in recent memory. Hospitals collapsed, oxygen ran out, and municipal corporations scrambled to create makeshift treatment centres overnight. In Mumbai, Asia's most expensive and densely populated city, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) rushed to set up "jumbo" COVID centres-large, centrally managed facilities meant to absorb the overflow of patients and save lives. Speed was essential.

Oversight, unfortunately, was sacrificed at the altar of urgency. It is in this chaos that the seeds of what later came to be known as the Rs.38-crore Jumbo COVID Centre scam were sown, with Sujit Patkar emerging as the central figure and Kirit Somaiya as the man who lit the fuse....