The Rajasthan High Court has denied bail to former Public Health Engineering Department (PHED) Minister Mahesh Joshi in the Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) scam.
A bench of Justice Pravir Bhatnagar on Tuesday dismissed Joshi’s bail petition. The move follows the trial court — the ED Cases Special Court — judge’s dismissal of his bail petition on June 13, 2025.
The Enforcement Directorate arrested Joshi on April 24 after a case was lodged against him under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) 2002 in connection with an alleged scam worth Rs 900 crore.
The state ED office had earlier served four summons on the former Congress MLA — three times last year and the fourth in April this year. The chargesheet in the case was filed on June 20, 2025.
Joshi was granted four-day interim bail to attend the last rites of his wife, who died on April 28, 2025. Since then, he has been in judicial custody.
According to available information, forged certificates were submitted during the process of inviting and approving tenders (granting contracts) for work related to various water supply schemes under the JJM, leading to irregularities worth crores of rupees during the previous Congress regime (2018-2023).
Before Joshi’s arrest, the ED questioned several senior PHED officials, contractors, and representatives of supplier companies, and arrested four individuals — Mahesh Mittal, Padam Chand Jain, Piyush Jain, and Sanjay Badaya — in connection with the case. They were later granted bail by the Supreme Court.