Ex-IAS officer Agarwal sent to jail in JJM scam

Jaipur: Former IAS officer Subodh Agarwal was sent to judicial custody by a special court here Wednesday after completion of his remand period.

The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) arrested Agarwal on April 9 for his alleged involvement in the Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) scam, where a nexus of private firms and senior public health engineering department (PHED) officials allegedly manipulated tenders and documents to secure large contracts.

Investigators allege two firms — Shri Ganpati Tubewell, run by Mahesh Mittal, and Shri Shyam Tubewell, run by Padamchand Jain — forged certificates of IRCON International Ltd and submitted fake work completion documents in multiple PHED tenders. The firms are suspected to have used the documents to secure contracts worth several crores.

The sources in the ACB said that the investigation was still underway into the case. “We have been interrogating him (Agarwal) and have found some key answers to the questions related to the entire scam,” said an official.

The sources allege that Agarwal, then PHED additional chief secretary, and other senior officers introduced a mandatory requirement of site visit certificates for projects above Rs 50 crore, which investigators say violated rules and exposed bidder identities. Officials claim this enabled cartelisation and “tender pooling”, pushing premiums to an unusually high 30%-40%, later cleared by PHED authorities.

The bureau filed two FIRs in the JJM case. They already filed a voluminous chargesheet in one of the cases on Monday. The bureau said that the work is underway to prepare another chargesheet in which Agarwal is mentioned as one of the accused.

The bureau had filed two FIRs into the JJM case. They have already filed a voluminous chargesheet into of the one of thee cases on Monday. The bureau said that the work is underway to prepare another chargesheet in which Agarwal is mentioned as one of the accused.Get real-time updates and result insights on the CBSE 12 Result 2026.