New Delhi, June 13 (IANS) Assets worth Rs 47.80 crore of Congress leader and former Rajasthan minister Mahesh Joshi and his aides were provisionally attached by the Enforcement Directorate in Jaipur in connection with the Rs 1,000-crore Jal Jeevan Mission scam, an official said on Friday.

The Jaipur Zonal Office of ED cracked the whip on June 11 and provisionally attached movable/immovable properties in the form of agricultural land, residential flats, houses and movable properties belonging to former minister and Congress leader Mahesh Joshi, Padamchand Jain, Mahesh Mittal, Sanjay Badaya, and Vishal Saxena and their family members/associate firms.

The properties in various parts of Jaipur were attached under the provisions of PMLA, 2002, said the ED.

The scam dates to the period when Ashok Gehlot was heading the Congress government in the desert state.

The money laundering case is linked to a corruption case registered by the Rajasthan Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) against the former minister and 22 others.

Joshi was the minister in charge of Rajasthan’s Public Health Engineering Department when the alleged scam took place.

In April, Joshi was arrested by the ED in connection with the scam. His arrest followed a day-long session of questioning.

Despite multiple summons, Joshi had previously avoided appearing before the agency, citing personal reasons.

The JJM scam pertains to fraudulent tendering under the Central government’s Jal Jeevan Mission Yojana, aimed at providing tap water to every household.

In 2021, contractors Padmachand Jain and Mahesh Mittal of Shri Shyam Tubewell Company, along with M/s Shri Ganapati Tubewell Company, secured tenders worth crores from the Public Health Engineering Department (PHED) using forged experience certificates.

Shri Ganapati Tubewell Company reportedly participated in 68 tenders using fake documents and won 31 contracts worth Rs 859.2 crore.

Similarly, Shri Shyam Tubewell Company took part in 169 tenders, securing Rs 120.25 crore by winning 73 of them.

Earlier, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) filed a case in connection with the scam on May 3, 2024. Subsequently, on May 4, the ED handed over key evidence and documents to the ACB for further action.

–IANS

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