Jaipur: In a significant development in the alleged Jal Jeevan Mission scam in Rajasthan, the Enforcement Directorate has arrested a PHED contractor during a raid in Rajasthan capital Jaipur on Wednesday taking the total arrests to three in the case, an official said.
It is learnt that the ED arrested PHED contractor Mahesh Mittal and produced him before a court, which sent him the ED custody till June 24. Mahesh Mittal is a relative of the contractor Padmachand Jain who was arrested by the ED earlier. Mahesh Mittal's name is also in the first case registered by the ACB regarding the matter. However, ACB could not arrest Mahesh Mittal as he was absconding for about nine months. Besides Mittal and Jain, Jain's son Piyush Jain has also been arrested by the ED in the case.
The case of irregularities and corruption in Jal Jeevan Mission came to light after ACB caught officials taking bribe from contractor Padmachand Jain. Later, ED registered a case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act regarding large-scale money transactions in this case. The first arrest was of Padmachand Jain's son Piyush Jain followed by Padmachand Jain and now Mahesh Mittal.
According to sources, transactions worth Rs 136 crore have been traced in Padmachand Jain's bank accounts.
The ED has seized a large amount of cash, gold-silver and property documents from the premises linked to Jain.
