Jaipur: Justice Anil Upman of the Rajasthan High Court Thursday rescued himself from hearing a petition filed by former additional chief secretary Subodh Agarwal, who has sought quashing of an FIR registered against him by the Anti-Corruption Bureau. The matter was taken up before Justice Upman, who stepped aside from the case without assigning reasons, in line with standard judicial practice in some instances. The petition will now be placed before another bench on the directions of the Chief Justice. The FIR against Agarwal relates to alleged irregularities involving crores of rupees in projects under the Jal Jeevan Mission. The ACB court has already issued arrest warrants against him, escalating the legal proceedings. A look out notice was also issued against Agarwal on Feb 18 to stop him from leaving the country, while ACB officials said efforts to trace him are continuing. In his plea before the high court, Agarwal denied any wrongdoing and argued that the alleged tender irregularities took place before he took charge in the Public Health Engineering Department. He said he assumed office on April 18, 2022, whereas the decisions under investigation had been made earlier. According to the petition, by the time the financial bids of two firms were first placed before him during the 844th Finance Commission meeting, approvals worth around Rs 605 crore had already been granted. The plea said these approvals were cleared by the Finance Commission headed by Sudhansh Pant, who served as additional chief secretary of PHED from Jan 15, 2021, to Apr 18, 2022.
