Jaipur (Rajasthan): The Enforcement Directorate has made the fourth arrest in the Rs 20,000 crore scam in Jal Jeevan Mission, the ambitious scheme of the Central Government to provide tap water to every household, sources said.
It is learnt that the businessman Sanjay Badaya has been arrested and taken on four-day remand by ED. He is being questioned about the illegal transaction of money in the scam as per sources. According to reliable sources within the ED, Sanjay Badaya was detained on Tuesday and questioned about the illegal transaction of large amounts of money in the Jal Jeevan Mission scam. He was later arrested late at night on Tuesday under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. Badaya has been taken on four-day remand after being produced before the special judge. It is alleged that Badaya played the role of a middleman to get the tenders cleared in PHED.
According to sources, former PHED Minister Dr Mahesh Joshi was also called for questioning by ED by issuing a notice, but he did not appear before ED for unknown reasons.
Badaya's is the fourth arrest in the Jal Jeevan Mission scam case. Piyush Jain, son of PHED contractor Padmachand Jain, was the first to be arrested in the case. Later, contractor Padmachand Jain and his relative Mahesh Mittal were arrested by the ED. Padmachand and Mahesh Mittal are accused of obtaining tenders with fake certificates as well as corruption and irregularities.
ED had seized 1 kg gold, 2.5 crore cash in September last year during raids in many cities including Jaipur. Besides, a large number of property documents were also seized by the central probe agency.
