Ex-IAS Subodh Agrawal’s lawyer quits JJM scam case

Jaipur: In a fresh twist in the Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) scam case involving retired IAS officer Subodh Agrawal, his counsel, advocate Deepak Chauhan, has withdrawn from the matter, citing "personal reasons".Chauhan moved an application on Feb 21 seeking the return of his vakalatnama. With a new vakalatnama yet to be filed, the case is expected to be listed for hearing after that.
On Feb 19, Chauhan had moved Rajasthan High Court for Agrawal, seeking quashing of the FIR registered by the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB). The withdrawal came before the plea could be taken up for hearing.Meanwhile, a Look Out Notice (LoN) was issued against Agrawal on Feb 18 to prevent him from leaving the country. The ACB is continuing its search in the case.The petition said Agrawal's tenure in the Public Health Engineering Department (PHED) began on April 18, 2022, while the alleged tender irregularities occurred before his posting. It also said before the financial bids of two firms were placed before Agrawal for the first time in the 844th Finance Commission (FC) meeting, bids worth about Rs 605 crores had already been approved by the FC headed by Sudhansh Pant, who was then additional chief secretary, PHED, between Jan 15, 2021 and April 18, 2022.