Rajasthan: ED conducts raids in Jal Jivan Mission 'money laundering scam'

Rajasthan is in the thick of elections and the State will vote for its 200-member Assembly on November 25. Amidst this, ED has begun searches at over two dozen locations including the premises of several VIPs in Jaipur and other places. This includes the premises of a senior bureaucrat, sources said.

Jaipur : The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has begun searches at over two dozen locations including the premises of several VIPs including a senior bureaucrat in election-bound Rajasthan in connection with the money laundering allegations against Jal Jivan Mission, sources said. The raids were begun in Jaipur and other places.

The Central agency is conducting raids at the premises of ACS in the PHE department, Dausa, under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), the official sources said. The ongoing searches were in continuation of the raids made by the agency in September.

Rajasthan is in the thick of elections and the State will vote for its 200-member Assembly on November 25. Counting of votes will take place on December 3 along with four other states which are Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Mizoram, and Telangana.

The probe triggered heated political exchanges between the ruling Congress in the State and the leaders of ruling BJP at the Centre. The money laundering case stems from a 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).

Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot has accused the central agencies of acting on the directions of the BJP-led government at the Centre. On the other hand, the ED officials have claimed that 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 Jal Jeevan mission was originally launched by the Union government with the aim of providing safe and adequate drinking water through home tap connections. The scheme was being implemented by the PHE department in Rajasthan.

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