ED makes third arrest in Rajasthan's Jal Jeevan Mission 'irregularities' case

Jaipur: The Enforcement Directorate has made a fresh arrest in connection with its money laundering investigation into alleged irregularities in the Jal Jeevan Mission scheme being implemented in Rajasthan.

Mahesh Mittal, proprietor of Shree Ganpati Tubewell Company, was taken into custody on Wednesday. He was produced before a court that sent him to ED custody till June 24.

The central agency early this week had arrested Padamchand Jain, proprietor of Shree Shyam Tubewell Company.

The Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) launched by the Union government aims to provide safe and adequate drinking water through household tap connections and it is being implemented in Rajasthan by the state's Public Health Engineering (PHE) department.

A man named Piyush Jain was the first to be arrested in this case by the federal agency in February.

The agency's investigation found Padamchand Jain and others were involved in giving bribes to public servants in order to obtain illegal protection, obtaining tenders, getting bills sanctioned and covering up irregularities in works executed by them in respect of various tenders received by them from the PHED.

The suspects were also involved in the purchase of stolen goods from Haryana for using the same in their tenders/contracts and had also submitted "fake" work completion letters from IRCON to get PHED contracts, the agency claimed.

The money laundering case of the ED stems from an FIR registered by the anti-corruption bureau (ACB) where it was charged Padamchand Jain, Mahesh Mittal, Piyush Jain and others.

Premises in Jaipur and Dausa, including the residential and official premises of senior PHE department officials, former Rajasthan minister Mahesh Joshi and IAS officer and the then additional chief secretary Subodh Agarwal, have been searched by the ED in connection with the probe. Assets worth Rs 11.03 crore have been attached in the case till now.