Jaipur: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has arrested a contractor of the state's Public Health Engineering (PHE) department in connection with alleged money laundering and irregularities in the Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) scheme. The JJM aims to provide tap water connections to all households.
Padmachand Jain was taken into custody under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) and produced before the special court. After which, he has been sent to ED remand till June 18. Now, ED will interrogate him in connection with the money laundering probe into JJM.
Earlier in February, Padmachand Jain's son Piyush Jain was arrested by ED. Transactions of huge sums of money were found in his bank account. According to ED sources, contractor Padmachand Jain was arrested following an interrogation on Thursday night.
During his court appearance, Padmachand Jain's lawyer had sought permission to provide him home cooked food and medicines citing his health condition, which was allowed by the court.
Irregularities in the JJM were revealed when on August 6 last year, ACB caught public servants, Mayalal Saini and Pradeep Kumar, taking bribe of Rs 2.20 lakh from Padmachand Jain. All connected with the incident were arrested.
Later, it was revealed that tenders worth Rs 900 crore were bagged by submitting fake certificates. Along with this, laying of stolen pipes from Haryana was also revealed.
ED has also registered a case regarding the scam and illegal money transactions in JJM. Before the assembly elections, in September 2023, ED raided many cities including Jaipur and seized cash worth Rs 2.50 crore and one kg gold. Also, several property documents were found.
ED had also searched the house of former PHED minister Mahesh Joshi and many others in connection with the case.
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