JAIPUR: Legal troubles are sharply intensifying for Rajasthan’s former Water Supply Minister Mahesh Joshi in the Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) scam that has rocked the state over the past few years. The Enforcement Directorate (ED), which is investigating the case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), has submitted its second charge sheet to the court on this scandal.The latest chargesheet accuses several individuals: Sanjay Badaya, a property dealer said to be very close to former minister Joshi, PHED contractor Padmachand Jain, businessman Mahesh Mittal, and Mukesh Pathak. ED’s chargesheet claims that transactions totaling Rs 500 crore have been recorded in the accounts of the accused. It also alleges that Jain and Mittal bribed Badaya with Rs 5.40 crore.The first chargesheet, filed on April 24, named Piyush Jain, the son of Padmachand Jain, who is currently in custody. The new chargesheet further accuses Padmachand Jain, Mahesh Mittal, and Piyush Jain of bribing Public Health and Engineering Department (PHED) officials to secure tenders and approve bills. Additionally, the accused are alleged to have purchased stolen goods from Haryana to influence the tender process during the former Congress government led by Ashok Gehlot when Mahesh Joshi was PHED minister.The chargesheet highlights that Sanjay Badaya was reportedly charging 2.5% to 3% from private contractors to facilitate their tenders in the PHED. Badaya is alleged to have received a bribe of approximately Rs 5.4 crore from contractors Mahesh Mittal and Padmachand Jain.Documents related to the Jal Jeevan Mission and investments in land were reportedly seized from the homes of property dealer Sanjay Badaya and Kalyan Singh Kavya, both of whom were closely associated with former PHED Minister Mahesh Joshi.On November 3, 2023, the ED had conducted raids at six locations, including the office of former Minister Joshi at the secretariat, and the offices of Additional Chief Secretary Subodh Agarwal, Chief Engineer KD Gupta, Engineer Dinesh Goyal, and XEN Sanjay Agarwal. At that time, Subodh Agarwal was the third senior-most IAS officer in Rajasthan and became the Additional Chief Secretary of the Water Supply Department in May 2023.During these raids, the ED seized hard disks and documents related to the JJM scam from Joshi’s office. Rs 45 lakh was confiscated from property dealer Ramavatar Sharma, a close associate of Sanjay Badaya. Additionally, Rs 1.75 crore was seized from the bank accounts of contractor Padmachand Jain and others.Earlier this year, on January 16, the ED raided Joshi and his associates, including residences of five senior officers and contractors from the Public Health Engineering Department (PHED) in Jaipur and Banswara, as well as Badaya’s location.The allegations suggest that, in the Rs 70,000 crore Jal Jeevan Mission, tenders for projects and schemes worth Rs 40,000 crore were allegedly manipulated at the time when Mahesh Joshi was PHED minister. Substandard HDPE pipes were reportedly used instead of DI pipes in villages, and use of inferior quality iron to construct thousands of tanks. Funds were allegedly misappropriated by passing off old pipelines as new, despite no actual installation occurring.Further accusations indicate that despite kilometers of water pipelines remaining uninstalled, contractors and water supply department officials colluded to embezzle funds. Contractor Padmachand Jain is accused of procuring stolen pipes from Haryana and presenting them as new, thereby siphoning off crores of rupees from the government.
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