Delhi minister Satyendar Jain arrested by ED; AAP calls it vendetta

The central anti-money laundering probe agency had in April this year attached immovable properties worth Rs. 4.81 crore belonging to companies linked to the case.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Monday arrested Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader and Delhi’s health minister Satyendar Jain in connection with a money laundering probe against him, his family members and associates.

Delhi health minister Satyendar Jain was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate on Monday evening. (HT FILE PHOTO.)

His party alleged that he was been harassed because Jain was AAP’s chief election strategist for the upcoming assembly elections in Himachal Pradesh, where the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was fast losing ground.

Jain was arrested under Prevention of Money Laundering Act after around four hours of questioning on Monday, during which he gave evasive replies on the money trail, people familiar with the development said on condition of anonymity.

He will be produced before a court on Tuesday morning, an official said.

The central agency’s probe is based on a 2017 case of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), in which it was alleged that the AAP leader and his wife Poonam Jain had amassed disproportionate assets worth ₹1.47 crore between February 2015 and May 2017, which was more than double their known sources of income.

“The ED case is an offshoot of CBI’s illegal wealth case registered on August 24, 2017 against Jain, in which a charge sheet has already been filed on December 3, 2018,” a CBI officer said on the ED’s action.

Last month, the agency attached land in Delhi worth ₹4.81 crore belonging to companies linked to the case — Akinchan Developers, Indo Metal Impex, Paryas Infosolutions, Mangalyatan Projects, and J J Ideal Estate — and Jain’s relatives Swati Jain, Sushila Jain and Indu Jain.

“Investigation by ED revealed that during the period 2015-16, when Jain was a public servant, the companies beneficially owned and controlled by him received accommodation entries to the tune of ₹4.81 crore from shell companies against cash transferred to Kolkata-based entry operators through Hawala route,” the ED said in April.

“These amounts were utilized for direct purchase of land or for the repayment of loan taken for purchase of agricultural land in and around Delhi,” it said.

Accommodation entries are usually done by hawala operators to accommodate illegal money in a company through a shell firm or in the form of cash by breaking large sums into smaller amounts to avoid suspicion.

Reacting to the arrest, Delhi’s deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia said Jain was ensuring that the BJP is defeated in the upcoming assembly polls in Himachal Pradesh, and that is why the BJP-led central government has unleashed the ED on him.

“It has been eight years since a fake case has been going on against Satyendar Jain. The ED has called him many times over these years, and then for some time in between the ED stopped summoning him because they could not find anything on him. But this trend has now started again because Jain was the election in-charge for AAP in Himachal Pradesh where the BJP is badly losing ground against the AAP in the upcoming Assembly polls. All the allegations are fake and baseless,” Sisodia said.

Later in the evening, AAP senior leader and Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh held a press conference and said that the other names which were mentioned in the complaint have “confessed to their crime and submitted that all the money belongs to them”.

“The BJP government has alleged that Jain was involved in hawala work through some companies between 2015 and 2017. The truth is that Jain had resigned from all these companies in March 2013 and had nothing to do with these companies during 2015-2017,” Singh said, adding that the CBI has already given its clean chit to Jain in the disproportionate assets case .

The CBI had alleged in 2017 that Jain and his wife co-founded a company, J J Ideal Estate, and the couple had stakes in Prayas Info Solutions, Akinchan Developers, Managalyatan Projects and Indo Metal Impex, which it alleged were shell companies.

The agency’s preliminary enquiry, a precursor to the 2017 FIR showed that Jain used these companies and 54 other shell firms of Kolkata-based hawala operators to launder ₹16.39 crore.

Money was given in cash by Jain through his employees and associates to the Kolkata operators to provide accommodation entries in his favour, CBI officers said.

After laundering the unaccounted for cash , Jain purchased the land in names of companies controlled by him in Delhi, according to the CBI. These lands have been attached.

Another case of alleged irregularities against Jain was closed by the CBI earlier this year.