ED raids in Rajasthan in Jal Jivan Mission scam linked money laundering case

NEW DELHI: The Enforcement Directorate on Friday conducted fresh searches at 25 locations in the poll-bound Rajasthan, including the premises of a senior IAS officer, as part of its money laundering investigation into the alleged Jal Jivan Mission scam, official sources said.

The money laundering case stems from the Rajasthan anti-corruption bureau (ACB) FIR which alleged that Padamchand Jain, proprietor of Shree Shyam Tubewell Company, Mahesh Mittal, proprietor of Shree Ganpati Tubewell Company 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 respect of work executed by them in respect of various tenders received by them from the public health and engineering department (PHED).

The raids were conducted on the premises of additional chief secretary in the public health engineering department Subodh Agarwal, some engineers, contractors, and former state government officials, suspected to have links in the case.

A total of 25 premises in Jaipur and Dausa were covered during raids while some other linked persons are also being covered under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), the sources said.

“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 had alleged in a statement issued earlier.

Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot has alleged that the central agencies were acting on the directions of the BJP-led government at the Centre to target the Opposition.