Jaipur, Jul 17 (PTI) The Enforcement Directorate on Wednesday said it has made a fresh arrest in the money laundering case linked to alleged irregularities in the Jal Jeevan Mission scheme in Rajasthan.
Sanjay Badaya, an alleged middleman, was apprehended on Tuesday and sent to the custody of ED for four days, the federal agency said in a statement.
This is the fourth arrest in the case.
The central government’s Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) aims to provide safe and adequate drinking water through household tap connections. It is being implemented in Rajasthan by the state’s Public Health Engineering (PHE) Department.
The central agency had earlier arrested three people — Mahesh Mittal, proprietor of Shree Ganpati Tubewell Company, Padamchand Jain, proprietor of Shree Shyam Tubewell Company, and Piyush Jain.
The agency’s investigation found that Padamchand Jain, Mittal and others were involved in giving bribes to public servants to obtain illegal protection, tenders, getting bills sanctioned and covering up irregularities in works executed by them in respect of various tenders they received from the PHED.
Badaya, the ED claimed, was “in receipt of bribe” from the accused firms like Shree Shyam Tubewell Company and Shri Ganpati Tubewell Company in order to facilitate favourable treatment.
He was also “influencing” officials of the PHED in carrying out their duties, it said.
The suspects were also involved in the purchase of stolen goods from Haryana and had also submitted “fake” work completion letters from IRCON to get PHED contracts, the agency had claimed earlier.
The ED’s money laundering case stems from an FIR registered by Rajasthan’s Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) in which Padamchand Jain, Mahesh Mittal, Piyush Jain and others were charged.
Premises in Jaipur and Dausa, including the residential and official premises of senior PHE Department officials, former Rajasthan minister Mahesh Joshi and former 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 so far. PTI NES RT RT
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