Rajasthan: Former Congress minister Mahesh Joshi arrested in alleged Jal Jeevan Mission scam

The Rajasthan Anti-Corruption Bureau on Thursday arrested Congress leader and former minister Mahesh Joshi in a case pertaining to the alleged misappropriation of funds meant for the Union government’s safe water scheme, PTI reported.

A special investigation team from the anti-corruption bureau arrested Joshi from his Jaipur home early on Thursday morning.

Joshi was the public health engineering department minister in Rajasthan during the Ashok Gehlot government, which lost power in December 2023.

In November, the Rajasthan Anti-Corruption Bureau filed a case against Joshi and 21 others, accusing them of embezzling funds in collusion with officials and contractors of the public health engineering department while implementing the Jal Jeevan Mission scheme in Rajasthan.

Joshi had been arrested by the Enforcement Directorate as well in April last year. He had spent seven months in jail before the Supreme Court granted him bail in December.

The anti-corruption bureau alleged that the owner of a firm had submitted fake completion certificates as well as a letter of award issued by public sector enterprise Indian Railway Construction International Limited to secure Jal Jeevan Mission contracts, The Indian Express reported.

The firm did so in connivance with officials of the public health engineering department, the bureau alleged.

An additional chief engineer from the department sought to verify the certificates issued to the firm, after which the Bengaluru office...

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