India, Aug. 1 -- The Mumbai unit of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday conducted searches in Mumbai at eight properties of civic contractors as part of its money laundering investigation into the alleged irregularities in contracts to desilt the Mithi River, according to officials aware of the developments.

The searches were conducted at the properties of five contractors who had allegedly submitted bogus documents to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) related to silt dumping work, officials said. The investigation is based on an FIR registered by the Mumbai police's Economic Offences Wing (EOW) in May, in which 13 people and entities were booked for allegedly causing the BMC a wrongful loss of Rs.65.54 crore.

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