Jaipur: The alleged Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) scam of previous Congress government of Rajasthan will now be investigated by Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) as well. The central probe agency has registered an FIR regarding corruption in the allotment of tenders in JJM. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) is already investigating the illegal money transaction in the case.
The case has been registered on the recommendation of the state government. The CBI has named an executive engineer of the Public Health and Engineering Department (PHED) and owners of two firms who were allegedly allotted the tenders for pipeline installation under the JJM. Some unknown public servants and private person have also been made accused in the FIR.
The alleged scam came in light during the previous Congress government in the state and was major election issue during the assembly election of Rajasthan as senior minister and close aide of former CM Ashok Gehlot Mahesh Joshi was heading the department and ED had conducted searches at Joshi and some of his close ones premises.
ED had conducted raids in many cities, including Jaipur and seized cash worth Rs 2.50 crore and one kg of gold from different places. Apart from this, numerous property documents were also found during the searches.
The Anti Corruption Bureau of Rajasthan had cracked the case. On August 6 last year, ACB caught PHED's XEN Mayalal Saini and JEN Pradeep Kumar taking a bribe of Rs 2.20 lakh from contractor Padmchand Jain who has been made accused by CBI. Later it came to light that tenders worth Rs 900 crore were taken by using fake certificates.
