Jaipur, May 12 -- Days after the arrest of former Rajasthan minister Mahesh Joshi in connection with the Rs.900-crore irregularities in the Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM) scheme in the state, the anti corruption bureau (ACB) has arrested his close aide Sanjay Badhaya from Delhi on Monday, a police officer said. "We had already issued a lookout notice against him. On Monday, ACB arrested him at around 2 am when he landed in New Delhi airport after his visit to a wedding function in Thailand. Both Badhaya and Joshi were also produced before the court in the day. The court sent Joshi to judicial custody while granted a 3-day police custody remand for Badhaya," deputy inspector general (DIG) of ACB Rameshwar Singh said. According to police, Badhaya was earlier also arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on July 16, 2024, in connection with the alleged money laundering but was granted bail by the Supreme Court on December 16, 2024, due to lack of evidence. Badhaya's arrest comes after the arrest of Joshi on May 7 and nearly a month after the arrest of former additional chief secretary of the public health and engineering department (PHED) Subodh Agrawal on April 9. However, the arrest took place based on an FIR lodged on August 8, 2023, that named 22 other officials including Agrawal and Badhaya. Meanwhile, while on their way to the court on Monday, Joshi told the media that he is being framed in this case. "Justice will prevail. I have neither anything to hide nor to confess. ACB is working under a political pressure and is framing me in this case. They arrested us without any evidence. This is unfair. The way they arrested Sanjay Badhaya, issued a lookout notice against him who visited Thailand only after taking the court's permission is unlawful," Joshi said. An officer investigating the matter said that the former state minister and Agrawal were allegedly paid at least 4% of the tender amount as bribe to sanction it to private firms at a higher cost as part of a project under the mission. "In the tenders, Padamchand Jain and Mahesh Mittal had paid 4% of the tender amount upfront as bribe to both additional chief secretary and Sanjay Badhaya (in lieu of Joshi). Agrawal was the head of the PHED's finance committee which deals with all tenders worth above Rs.5 crore. He was very much interested in two tenders (by Ganapati Tubewells and Shyam Tubewells companies) related to Nagaur under the jurisdiction of additional chief engineer of the PHED's Ajmer unit," he said. Ahead of Agrawal's arrest, the ACB also arrested at least 10 other people on February 17 while conducting a search operation across four states including Rajasthan, Delhi, Jharkhand and Bihar. "A raid was also conducted in Badhaya and Agrawal's places but they were absent following which the lookout notice was issued," said the officer.und Rs.960 crores," said the officer....