Early morning action: Rajasthan ACB arrests former Congress minister Mahesh Joshi in Jal Jeevan Mission ‘scam’

As per the ACB, a firm owner had allegedly submitted fake completion certificates along with a letter of award issued by Indian Railway Construction International Limited (IRCON) along with bid documents to get contracts under Jal Jeevan Mission in connivance with the senior officials of the Public Health Engineering Department.

When the Additional Chief Engineer of PHED sought to verify the certificates issued to the firm, IRCON Bengaluru office had declared them forged. It was subsequently revealed that alleged corruption worth crores was done by getting tenders of about Rs 960 crores through these fake completion certificates.

Apart from Agarwal and Joshi, ACB had previously arrested ten others in the case, who are government engineers and officers, including Dinesh Goyal, K D Gupta, Subhanshu Dixit, Sushil Sharma, Niril Kumar, Vishal Saxena, Arun Srivastava, D K Gaud, Mahendra Prakash Soni, and Mukesh Pathak, a private person.

Additionally, standing warrants for the arrest of three other accused, who are allegedly absconding, were also issued by a court. These are government officials Mukesh Goyal, Jitendra Sharma, and Sanjeev Gupta, a private person.

The ED had first conducted searches at various locations in Jaipur, Alwar, Neemrana, Behror and Shahpura under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in September 2023 while investigating the case. So far, it has searched over 70 locations and seized cash and goods valued at over Rs 11 crore.

Months before the ED’s 2023 searches, BJP leader Kirodi Lal Meena, then the party’s Rajya Sabha MP, had claimed that the scam in PHED was worth Rs 20,000 crore, and claimed that Joshi, ACS Subodh Agarwal and others were involved in it.

In May 2024, the CBI too had registered an FIR in connection with the scam, almost eight months after the conclusion of its preliminary enquiry registered on August 24, 2023.

Terming it “political vendetta”, Joshi said that “they just want to keep this case alive for the elections, just like they used it in the 2023 elections.”

“ACB didn’t enquire anything from me, nor did they give a notice, but they arrested me,” he said, adding that he “is innocent and I will prove my innocence. They have arrested twice without any basis, they are murdering natural justice.”

Incidentally, Thursday was his marriage anniversary. During his arrest by ED around this time last year, his wife was on her deathbed, eventually passing away four days later after his arrest.

Condeming Joshi’s arrest, former Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot said that it is “a clear violation of the law’s explicit guidelines. When the rule is that questioning should first be conducted by issuing a notice, and only thereafter, if necessary, is there the authority to make an arrest; but instead, directly conducting an arrest at 5 am without any notice or questioning raises serious questions about the government’s intentions.”

“I have always believed that if someone has engaged in corruption, they must be ensured punishment… My clear allegation is that there is pressure on the ACB not to act in real cases and to take action on political grounds. Today’s action against Shri Mahesh Joshi is a prime example of this,” Gehlot said.

He said that Joshi, “had fully cooperated even during the ED’s action. Despite his wife’s serious illness, he had gone for the ED’s questioning upon receiving the notice. He has always extended full cooperation to government agencies. In such a situation, the ACB’s arrest without any questioning is solely and purely motivated by politics. The BJP government is adopting a new method of violating legal procedures. This is a step taken out of political malice and pressure from those in power. We are fully confident that this political vendetta will be exposed before the judiciary.”