ACB arrests ex-minister Joshi in JJM tender case

Times News Network

Jaipur: The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) Thursday arrested former Congress cabinet minister Mahesh Joshi from his Jaipur residence in connection with the Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) corruption case, alleging that manipulated tenders, forged certificates and cartelised bidding helped siphon off crores of rupees from projects meant to deliver drinking water across the state.

The bureau said Joshi, the then PHED minister, was arrested in the case registered against him after questioning by the special investigation team (SIT). A court later remanded him to ACB custody till May 11. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) had also arrested Joshi in April 2025. He later secured bail in Dec 2025.

ACB’s SIT officials said two firms — Ganpati Tubewell and Shree Shyam Tubewell — used forged completion certificates purportedly issued by IRCON International Limited to secure PHED tenders worth several crores. The ACB alleged that the forged documents were attached to multiple bids in collusion with Joshi, then additional chief secretary Subodh Agarwal, senior PHED engineers, contractors and private middlemen, including Sanjay Badaiya.

According to the probe, the accused officials allegedly tweaked tender conditions for major projects exceeding Rs 50 crore by inserting a controversial mandatory site visit certificate clause, in violation of procurement norms. Investigators claimed the clause effectively exposed the identities of bidders before tenders were opened, enabling bid pooling and cartel formation.

The ACB alleged that the manipulation led to unusually high premiums of 30% to 40% in projects, causing massive losses to the state exchequer. Officials alleged PHED officers cleared the inflated bids despite glaring irregularities, amounting to large-scale abuse of official position.

So far, 11 accused, including retired IAS officer Subodh Agarwal and several serving and retired PHED engineers, have been arrested in the case. Among them are Dinesh Goyal, KD Gupta, Subhanshu Dixit, Sushil Sharma, Niril Kumar, Vishal Saxena, Arun Srivastava, DK Gaur, Mahendra Prakash Soni and private individual Mukesh Pathak.

The ACB said three accused — Mukesh Goyal, Jitendra Sharma and Sanjeev Gupta — remain absconding. Permanent arrest warrants have been issued against them and proceedings are underway to declare them proclaimed offenders.

Five other accused persons have secured protection from arrest from the Rajasthan High Court.

Officials said the SIT, working under deputy inspector general Rameshwar Singh, conducted a detailed analysis of technical and documentary evidence before Joshi’s arrest. The investigation team includes Additional SPs Himanshu, Mahavir Prasad Sharma and Bhupendra.
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