A day after a Look Out Circular (LOC) was filed against him by the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB), retired Rajasthan IAS officer Subodh Agarwal (IAS:1988:RJ) moved the High Court on Thursday, seeking quashing of the FIR registered against him. The FIR relates to an alleged Rs 900-crore scam in Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) tenders. The petition says that the FIR was lodged without a detailed preliminary inquiry and ignored crucial facts.
The petition says that the preliminary inquiry was not conducted before lodging the FIR, which is a must. Agarwal’s counsel, Deepak Chauhan, argues that the alleged irregularities relating to JJM tenders occurred prior to Agarwal’s tenure in the Public Health Engineering Department (PHED) that began on April 18, 2022.
It has been claimed in the petition that two firms—Ganpati Tubewell and Shyam Tubewell—secured tenders worth hundreds of crores by submitting forged certificates purportedly issued by IRCON International, even before Agarwal assumed charge.
According to the petition, the tenders linked to the Rs 900-crore scam mentioned in the FIR, approvals during Agarwal’s tenure accounted for less than 10% of the total value, and not a single payment was released to Ganpati Tubewell or Shyam Tubewell under the tenders approved by the Finance Committee chaired by Agarwal.
Agarwal has claimed in the petition that before the financial bids of both the accused firms were placed before him, bids worth approximately Rs 605 crores had already been approved by the Finance Commission headed by Sudhansh Pant (ACS, PHED from Jan 15, 2021 to April 18, 2022).
The petition alleges mala fides of the investigation agency by exonerating Pant or the officers under him from the scope of investigation.
The petition claims that Agarwal promptly constituted a high-level committee after receiving an email from IRCON International raising concerns about forged documents. As claimed in the petition, following the report, all tenders awarded to the 2 firms were cancelled, they were blacklisted as per rules, and their earnest money deposits were forfeited.
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