Former Rajasthan minister Mahesh Joshi of Congress arrested in ‘Jal Jeevan Mission scam’

Talking to journalists while being led away by ED officials late on Thursday, Joshi said, “My wife is on the verge of death, I requested them… A case has been created against me, but I did not indulge in any wrongdoing, and I did not take money from anyone. Action has been taken against me on the basis of statements of those on whom I had taken action. I have full faith in the law of the country and I hope that I will get justice.”

Terming it “political vendetta”, former chief minister Ashok Gehlot said the “ED has become the extortion department of the BJP”. “This arrest has been carried out at a time when his wife has been struggling between life and death while in a state of unconsciousness at a Jaipur hospital for about 15 days. His wish was to give a statement to the ED after emerging from this difficult situation. This is an attempt to emotionally break him so that statements can be extracted from him as desired,” Gehlot said.

In 2023, the ED had initiated an investigation on the basis of the ACB FIR, according to which Padamchand Jain, proprietor of Messers Shree Shyam Tubewell Company, as well as Mahesh Mittal, proprietor of Messers Shree Ganpati Tubewell Company and others were allegedly involved in bribing 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 PHED department”.

It alleged that the suspects were also involved in the purchase of stolen goods from Haryana for use in their tenders/contracts and had also submitted fake work completion letters from IRCON — a government company — to get PHED contracts. Earlier that year, it was BJP Rajya Sabha MP Kirodi Lal Meena who had first alleged irregularities in Jal Jeevan Mission, claiming there was a scam worth Rs 20,000 crore.

Ahead of the 2023 Assembly elections in Rajasthan, the ED had conducted raids at various locations in Jaipur, Alwar, Neemrana, Behror, Shahpura and other places. The locations included those linked to senior PHED officials and then minister Joshi’s office in the Secretariat.

In January 2024, the ED had conducted searches at eight locations, including Joshi’s residential premises. At the time, ED had said that during the search operations, unaccounted cash worth Rs 39 lakh and various incriminating documents were seized. As of January 2024, the total seizure in the case stood at Rs 11.42 crore, including gold/silver worth Rs 6.50 crore.

In the previous Congress government, Joshi, who was also the Chief Whip, was one of the most important leaders of the Gehlot camp. He was Gehlot’s top aide during the 2020 political crisis and had emerged as key figure as Gehlot staved off threats from inside and outside the party. In November 2021, he was made a Cabinet minister for PHED and in September 2022, he emerged as one of the key architects of the boycott of the Congress Legislative Party (CLP) meet, apparently called to empower the high command to choose the next CM, said to have been Sachin Pilot — Gehlot primary intra-party rival at the time.

However, owing to the CLP boycott and his personal troubles, including the ED investigation and a rape case against his son, he was dropped by the party from Jaipur’s Hawa Mahal constituency in the 2023 Assembly elections.