New Delhi: Delhi Minister Satyendar Jain was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) here Mondayin a money laundering case. Satyender Jain’s Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) called it a political move ahead of the Himachal Pradesh Assembly polls. Satyender was was taken into custody under criminal sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) after a few hours of questioning, ED officials said. They alleged he was ‘evasive’ in his replies.
The minister is expected to be produced before a designated court on Tuesday. The arrest has been made by the federal agency in connection with alleged hawala dealings.
Reacting sharply to the arrest, Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said Jain has been held in an eight-year-old ‘fake’ case. It has been done as Satyender is the AAP’s in-charge for the Himachal Pradesh Assembly elections and the BJP is afraid of losing the polls.
“A fake case has been going on against Satyendar Jain for eight years. He has been called by the ED several times so far. The ED had stopped calling him for some time because it did not find anything against him. Now it has again started because he is the in-charge of Himachal Pradesh elections,” Sisodia said in a tweet in Hindi.
“The BJP is afraid of losing the elections and hence he was arrested to prevent him from going to Himachal. He will be released soon as he has been arrested in a fake case,” Sisodia added.
Jain, 57, is the minister for health, industries, power, home, urban development and water in the Arvind Kejriwal-led government.
The Himachal Pradesh Assembly polls are slated for later this year. The AAP is looking to make inroads into the state after its stupendous victory in Punjab earlier this year.
The ED had said last month that assets worth Rs 4.81 crore of Jain’s family and companies ‘beneficially owned and controlled’ by him were provisionally attached as part of a money laundering probe against him.
In a statement issued then, the ED had said it issued a provisional order under the PMLA to ‘attach immovable properties worth Rs 4.81 crore belonging to Akinchan Developers Pvt Ltd, Indo Metal Impex Pvt Ltd, Paryas Infosolutions Pvt Ltd, Manglayatan Projects Pvt Ltd, JJ Ideal Estate Pvt Ltd, Swati Jain, wife of Vaibhav Jain, Sushila Jain, wife of Ajit Prasad Jain, and Indu Jain, wife of Sunil Jain.”
The money laundering case against the AAP minister stems from an August 2017 FIR filed by the CBI against him and others on charges of alleged possession of disproportionate assets.
