The former minister from Rajasthan Mahesh Joshi, was arrested by the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) this morning in connection with the Rs 900 crore Jal Jeevan Mission scam. The Deputy Inspector General of ACB, Rameshwar Singh, said that Joshi was the Minister of Public Health and Engineering Department (PHED) when funds irregularities happened in the Jal Jeevan Mission. “Joshi has been arrested to investigate and collect conclusive evidence regarding his involvement in the scam.”

Why has the ACB arrested Mahesh Joshi?

On Thursday morning around 5.30 am, the special ACB team arrested Mahesh Joshi from his residence. He was taken to the agency headquarters for questioning. While speaking to the media, officials said they are currently investigating the matter and would update regarding the role of Joshi after proper investigation. Joshi’s arrest comes a month after the arrest of retired IAS officer Subodh Agrawal, who was the additional chief secretary (ACS) of PHED during the tenure when the scam happened.

Joshi was first arrested last year in April, under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). But, he was granted bail by the top court on December 3, 2025, due to insufficient evidence.

The case came to forefront when a FIR was registered by Rajasthan ACB on August 8, 2023, which named 22 people, including Subodh Agrawal and Sanjay Badhaya, who is a close associate of Mahesh Joshi. In July 2024, Badhaya was arrested by the ED. In February 2025, 10 more people were arrested, after multiple raids across Rajasthan, Delhi, Jharkhand and Bihar. Among those arrested are PHED chief engineer Dinesh Goyal, executive engineer Vishal Saxena, and many others. Investigation until now suggests that PHED officials manipulated tender processes to favour select companies and even awarded contracts that were at higher rates, leading to major financial losses to the government.

What do the preliminary findings suggest?

The preliminary findings by ACB suggests that both former minister Mahesh Joshi and retired ACS Subodh Agrawal received bribes that were approximately 4% of the tender value. As per the report of ED, businessmen Padamchand Jain and Mahesh Mittal had allegedly made advance payment of bribe to Agrawal and Sanjay Badhaya, in order to secure tenders. Report further suggests that officials even pressured junior engineer Vishal Saxena to give a verification report in favour of the companies. Even fake documents were used get 104 tenders which was worth ₹979.45 crore.

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