Congress leader and former Rajasthan minister Mahesh Joshi was on Thursday arrested by the Enforcement Directorate in a case pertaining to the alleged misappropriation of funds meant for the Union government’s safe water scheme, India Today reported.

Joshi was the public health engineering department minister in Rajasthan during the Ashok Gehlot government, which lost power in December 2023.

In November, the Rajasthan Anti-Corruption Bureau filed a case against Joshi and 21 others, accusing them of embezzling funds in collusion with officials and contractors of the public health engineering department while implementing the Jal Jeevan Mission scheme in Rajasthan.

The central government scheme was launched in 2019 to provide piped water connection and safe drinking water to all rural households by 2024. In Rajasthan, the public health engineering department was responsible for implementing the scheme in the state.

The Enforcement Directorate’s investigation stems from another September 2023 case filed by the state’s anti corruption bureau against two tubewell contractors who were accused of obtaining government tenders worth Rs 900 crore by submitting fake work completion certificates, The Indian Express reported.

Padamchand Jain and Mahesh Mittal, who are proprietors of the tubewell companies, and others, were accused of bribing public servants to secure tenders, approve bills and cover up irregularities in contracts under the Jal Jeevan Mission scheme. It was also alleged that they purchased stolen goods from Haryana, The Indian Express reported.

The Enforcement Directorate had initiated an investigation in late 2023 into allegations of money laundering related to the irregularities.

Ahead of the 2023 Assembly elections in Rajasthan, the central agency raided several locations in several parts of the state, including those linked to senior department officials and Joshi’s office in the secretariat.

Similar searches were conducted again in January 2024, including at Joshi’s residence. As of January 2024, the probe agency had seized Rs 11.4 crore in the matter, including gold and silver worth Rs 6.5 crore.

Joshi has denied the allegations against him.

“A case has been created against me, but I did not indulge in any wrongdoing, and I did not take money from anyone,” The Indian Express quoted Joshi as saying while he was being arrested on Thursday.

He added: “Action has been taken against me on the basis of statements of those on whom I had taken action. I have full faith in the law of the country and I hope that I will get justice.”

Former Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot described the arrest as an act of “political vendetta” and accused the Enforcement Directorate of being the “extortion department” of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.

Gehlot said that the arrest came at a time when Joshi’s wife is critically ill and has been unconscious in a Jaipur hospital for 15 days. “This is an attempt to break them emotionally so that desirable statements can be extracted from them,” he alleged.