New Delhi: Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Monday arrested Delhi Health and Home Minister Satyendar Jain in connection with alleged hawala transactions related to a Kolkata-based company.
Jain was arrested after a special ED team raided his place in Delhi. Besides, Home and Health, Jain holds portfolios of Power, PWD, Industries, Urban Development and Flood and Irrigation and Water in the Aam Aadmi Party-led Delhi government.
The action came after the ED in April this year attached immovable properties worth Rs 4.81 crore owned by companies named Akinchan Developers Pvt. Ltd, Indo Metal Impex Pvt Ltd, and others under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 in connection with the disproportionate asset and money laundering case registered Jain, his wife Poonam Jain, and others.
It may be recalled that on August 25, 2017, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had filed an FIR against Jain in a money laundering case. The ED had registered a criminal case against the AAP leader based on this FIR in which it had been alleged that Jain could not explain the source of funds received by four companies in which he was a shareholder. Jain had reportedly floated or bought several shell companies in Delhi.
He also allegedly laundered black money worth Rs 16.39 crore through 54 shell companies of three hawala operators of Kolkata. Jain allegedly owned a large number of shares in companies named Prayas, Indo, and Akinchan.
However, after becoming Minister in Kejriwal’s government, all his shares were transferred to his wife in 2015, as per reports. These companies used to transfer cash payments to their Kolkata counterparts and these companies would later, under the ruse of buying shares, “route back the money” to Jain by employing legal means. The companies have reportedly laundered money to the tune of Rs 16.39 crores from 2010 to 2014 to Satyendra Jain.
As per government sources, when prosecuted by the I-T Department, Jain surrendered black money in form of cash of Rs 16.39 crore under Income Disclosure Scheme (IDS) 2016 on benami names of Vaibhav Jain and Ankush Jain.
In November 2019, the Home Ministry approved the prosecution of Jain in cases related to disproportionate assets and money laundering.
(With agency inputs)