Jaipur, Feb 23 Retired IAS officer Subodh Agarwal's lawyer, facing allegations in the Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) scam case, has received another jolt as his lawyer Deepak Chauhan has withdrawn from the case just days after filing a petition in the Rajasthan High Court seeking to quash the FIR registered by the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB).
Chauhan filed the petition on February 19 on behalf of Agarwal, but submitted an application on February 21 to withdraw his power of attorney. The petition was expected to be heard this week, but with the lawyer stepping away, the case will now be listed only after a new counsel files a fresh power of attorney.
Earlier, on February 18, a lookout notice was issued against Subodh Agarwal to prevent him from leaving the country.
The ACB is currently searching for him in connection with the ongoing investigation into alleged irregularities in JJM tenders.
In the petition, Agarwal claimed that 95 per cent of the tenders were approved by the Finance Committee headed by then Additional Chief Secretary (ACS) Sudhansh Pant.
He stated that his tenure at the Public Health Engineering Department (PHED) began on April 18, 2022, and that tenders for firms Ganpati Tubewell and Shyam Tubewell were awarded before his tenure using allegedly fake IRCON certificates.
He further claimed that tenders worth less than 10 per cent of the total value were approved during his tenure, but the ACB did not examine this aspect.
Agarwal stated that no payments were released to the accused firms during his tenure, and therefore, no financial loss was caused to the government.
He said that after receiving an email from IRCON, he constituted a high-level committee, following which tenders of both firms were cancelled, they were blacklisted, and legal action was taken against officer Vishal Saxena.
The petition also alleged that the ACB action is based on statements by Vishal Saxena, despite Agarwal having filed an FIR against him, suggesting personal animosity.
--IANS
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