ED ARRESTS DELHI HEALTH MINISTER SATYENDRA JAIN

Delhi Health and Home Minister Satyendra Jain was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Monday, after a special ED team raided his premises in Delhi, in a money laundering case. Jain also holds power, PWD, industries, urban development and flood and irrigation and water portfolios in the Aam Aadmi Party-led Delhi government.

Jain was arrested after the ED in April this year attached immovable properties worth Rs 4.81 crore owned by companies named Akinchan Developers, Indo Metal Impex and others under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 in connection with the disproportionate asset and money laundering case registered against the minister, his wife Poonam and others.

The money laundering case goes back to 2017 when the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had filed an FIR against Jain, after which the ED registered a criminal case against him based on this FIR. The CBI had in its FIR alleged that Jain could not explain the source of funds received by four companies in which he was a shareholder.

Jain is alleged to have floated or bought several shell companies in Delhi and laundered black money worth Rs. 16.39 crore through 54 shell companies of three hawala operators

from Kolkata.

The AAP leader is alleged to have owned a large number of shares in companies named Akinchan Developers, Indo Metal Impex and Prayas. After becoming a minister in the AAP government, all his shares were transferred to his wife in 2015.

These companies, under investigation, allegedly used to transfer cash payments to their Kolkata counterparts, which would in turn “route back the money” to Jain under the ruse of buying shares, employing legal means. The companies are alleged to have laundered Rs. 16.39 crore to Jain between 2010 and 2014.

Jain had surrendered black money in the form of cash of Rs. 16.39 crore under Income Disclosure Scheme (IDS) in 2016, government sources say, using benami individuals going by the names of Vaibhav Jain and Ankush Jain.