The Enforcement Directorate conducted fresh searches in poll-bound Rajasthan, including at the premises of a senior IAS officer, as part of its probe into a money laundering case related to the alleged Jal Jeevan Mission scam on Friday, official sources said.
Officials covered a total of 25 premises in the state capital Jaipur, and Dausa, including that of Subodh Agarwal — Additional chief secretary of Public Health Engineering department — are being covered, they said.
Some other persons, who are also linked to the case, are being covered under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), sources said.
THE JAL JEEVAN MISSION SCAM
In one of the biggest raids in Rajasthan, the central agency in early September seized Rs 2.5 crore cash and 1 kg of gold bars from the homes of a serving state government officer as well as a retired one.
The searches were conducted in connection with an alleged scam in the Jal Jeevan Mission. Weeks after this seizure, the ED conducted searches in the bank lockers of the accused officers and seized 9.5 kg of gold worth Rs 5.86 crore on Tuesday, a top ED officer told News18.
According to the search documents, the ED recovered 8 kg gold from a locker of a PNB branch (ML Road) in Jaipur. The locker is registered in the name of a senior serving officer of Rajasthan government, allegedly close to the senior bureaucrats and some ministers.
In another search operation, the ED officers recovered 1.5 kg gold from the locker of a retired Rajasthan Service Officer. This particular locker was in a PNB branch located at Shastri Nagar, Jaipur.
With the ED expanding the scope of investigation into the scam, the scam is likely to be one of the major focal points of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) campaign in Rajasthan in the run-up to the assembly elections.
FAKE DOCUMENTS VALIDATED BY ANOTHER SET OF FAKES
The Jal Jeevan Mission scam in poll-bound Rajasthan, turned into a multi-crore fund embezzlement led by a fake tendering process. The seized documents peg the size of the scam at Rs 1,000 crore, but it can go to the tune of multiple hundred crores, said a top officer in the Enforcement Directorate (ED).
Two companies with fake antecedents were awarded contracts for a Rs 900-crore project, of which they have claimed a bill for Rs 500 crore. Of the two owners, one has been picked up, while the other is absconding, News18 has learnt.
Rajasthan’s Public Health Engineering Department (PHED) is the implementing authority for the project to lay drinking water pipelines across districts.
Speaking to News18, Mahesh Joshi, Rajasthan’s PHED minister, however, said the case was initiated by the state’s Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) in August and the ED has taken over. He further said that everything will come to the fore as the investigation progresses.
Two companies — Ganapati Tubewell Company and Shri Shyam Tubewell Company — owned by two businessmen, who are related, bagged the contract by producing fake and fabricated experience certificates, another senior ED official told News 18.
A preliminary inquiry was ordered by the department, however, it was wrapped up by producing another set of fabricated documents to remove the objections. Both the companies were not eligible for bidding, however, they were awarded the Rs 900-crore contracts, said the source.
A First Information Report (FIR) was registered with the ACB of the Rajasthan government on August 8 in connection with the Jal Jeevan Mission scam case. The allegations are related to irregularities in the tendering and work process, procurement of raw materials and laying down of old pipelines. Questions were also raised about the depth of the pipe-laying work.
(With PTI inputs)
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