The Rajasthan Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) has filed a massive 17,500-page chargesheet in a major corruption investigation involving the Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM), a central government scheme aimed at providing household tap water connections.

The case names retired IAS officer and former additional chief secretary of the Public Health Engineering Department (PHED), Subodh Agarwal, who headed the department during the implementation of the scheme between April 2022 and January 2024.

Investigators allege that two private firms, M/s Shri Ganpati Tubewell Company and M/s Shree Shyam Tubewell Company, secured contracts worth around ₹979 crore between 2021 and 2023 by submitting forged work-completion certificates.These documents were reportedly shown in the name of IRCON, a Navratna public sector undertaking under the Railways Ministry.

According to the allegations, senior PHED officials colluded with the firms to facilitate their eligibility for large-scale infrastructure contracts involving pipelines, pumps, and household tap water connections across multiple districts in Rajasthan.A key development in the case is an email sent by IRCON on February 16, 2023, warning that the certificates used by the firms were forged.However, investigators claim that this crucial alert was suppressed, allowing the companies to continue benefiting from government contracts.

The probe also highlights the alleged involvement of absconding superintendent engineer Mukesh Goyal, who is said to have worked with Mukesh Pathak, a private office assistant at IRCON, to prepare fake certificates and draft responses to verification queries raised by the PHED.

The ACB filed the chargesheet on June 4, marking a significant escalation in the investigation into what is being described as a large-scale procurement and documentation fraud within a flagship rural water supply programme.