Mumbai, May 14 -- Prashant Ramugade, the deputy chief engineer of Mithi River Development Project, had visited Dubai and Singapore in 2020-21 using funds provided by Ketan Kadam, who was arrested last week in connection with the alleged Rs.65-crore Mithi river desilting scam, the Mumbai police's Economic Offences Wing (EOW) said on Tuesday. Kadam and Jayesh Joshi, who allegedly acted as intermediaries in renting out desilting machines to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) at inflated rates, knew Ramugade prior to submitting bids for the desilting work, the EOW told the Esplanade court. Kadam even hosted the civic official and his family in Delhi and bought the tickets for their foreign trips, the EOW said. The EOW had, on May 6, booked 13 people, including three civic officials, for allegedly causing the BMC a loss of Rs.65.54 crore in connection with the Mithi River desilting project. The agency alleged that silt and debris was not removed from several places, inflated rates were charged for removing the silt and no audit of the desilting work was carried out. On May 7, the EOW arrested Kadam, the director of Woder India LLP, a Mumbai-based company that provides desilting services. Joshi, associated with Mumbai-based industrial product manufacturer Virgo Specialties Pvt Ltd, was also arrested the same day. The duo is accused of acting as intermediaries and renting out desilting machines at inflated rates. On Tuesday, when they were produced before the Esplanade court, the EOW claimed that Kadam had hosted Ramugade and two other BMC officials in a hotel in Delhi in September 2020. Kadam had even paid for their plane tickets, the EOW said. When Ramugade visited Singapore with his family for four days in May 2021, and when he visited Dubai on Decemer 13, 2021, Kadam paid for the expenses then too, said a police officer. He also made bookings on behalf of the BMC official, the officer said. The police said many dummy companies may have been used to route money by BMC officials to the intermediaries. Dr Yusuf Iqbal and Zain Shroff, who had appeared for Joshi, argued that their client was just a middleman and he had not received a single penny from the civic body. He had merely rented out the machines while the tender was floated by the BMC, they said. After hearing both sides, additional chief judicial magistrate Vinod Patil sent both the accused to judicial custody. Meanwhile, Ramugade had filed an anticipatory bail plea in the sessions court, which was due to be heard on Wednesday, the EOW told the Esplanade court....