MUMBAI, June 8 -- The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has summoned at least a dozen people, including actor Dino Morea, officials from the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), civic contractors and intermediaries, for questioning related to its money laundering investigation into the execution of contracts for desilting the Mithi River. All the summoned people have been asked to appear for questioning at the agency's Mumbai office next week, said an official aware of developments. The people summoned included those named and questioned previously by the Mumbai police's Economic Offences Wing (EOW), which had registered an FIR in connection with the alleged fraud last month. According to the EOW, irregularities in executing desilting work contracts for the Mithi River have resulted in a loss of Rs.65.54 crore for the BMC and, in turn, the public exchequer. The development comes a day after ED carried out searches at 18 locations across Mumbai, Kochi and Thrissur in connection with the investigation. The search operation covered the residential/office premises of Morea and his brother Santino Morea, BMC engineer Prashant Ramgude, civic contractor Bhupendra Purohit, intermediaries Jay Joshi and Ketan Kadam, and Matprop Technical Services Pvt Ltd, a Kochi-based company that rented machinery and equipment for the desilting work. According to an ED press release issued on Saturday, the evidence collected during the investigation and search operation prima facie indicates that Ramgude, Purohit, Joshi, Kadam, officials of Matprop, and others "colluded to form a cartel with the intent to manipulate BMC tenders" related to the desilting of Mithi River. "This action effectively conferred a monopoly in the award of desilting contracts of Mithi River and caused payments at inflated rates for desilting works, resulting in undue gains to the contractors and associated parties, thereby causing financial loss to the public exchequer. These undue financial gains have been concealed by layering them through certain shell companies/firms, which were formed by collusion amongst Ketan Kadam, Bhupendra Purohit, Prashant Ramgude and other private individuals," the release said. During Friday's search operation, the ED seized Rs.7 Lakh in cash, and froze 22 bank accounts/fixed deposits and one demat account. The total amount seized or frozen is more than Rs.1.25 crore so far, the ED said....