ED arrests Delhi minister Satyendar Jain under PMLA in alleged 'hawala transactions' case

Tribune News Service

Mukesh Ranjan

New Delhi, May 30

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Monday arrested Delhi Health Minister and senior Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Satyendar Jain under criminal provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) in connection with his alleged involvement in a ‘hawala transactions’ case, officials said.

Incidentally, Jain, who is the party in-charge for upcoming Himachal Pradesh assembly elections, has been arrested just a day ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the Himalayan state on Tuesday.

However, the ED action comes over a month after the agency issued a provisional attachment order under the PMLA to seize assets linked to Jain and his family members, worth around Rs 4.81 crore.

According to the officials the alleged hawala transactions for which Jain has been arrested were “related to a Kolkata-based company”.

The officials said Jain has been accused of allegedly receiving money from shell companies in lieu of the cash transferred via “hawala”, a term used for transfer of cash other than formal legal means and is often used laundering money.

Reacting to his arrest, Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia is tweet said Jain is being targeted in a “fake case” on behest of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), due to his active involvement in the AAP’s political campaign in poll-bound Himachal Pradesh.

“A fake case is being run against Satyendra Jain for 8 years. Till now ED has called him many times. In between, ED stopped calling for many years as they did not find anything. Now, they have started again because Satyendra Jain is the (party’s) election in-charge of Himachal Pradesh where the BJP is losing badly. This is the reason why Satyendra Jain has been arrested today so that he cannot go to Himachal Pradesh. He will be released in a few days, as the case is completely fake,” the Delhi Deputy Chief Minister said.

The case against Jain stems from an August 2017 FIR filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) against him and others on charges of alleged possession of disproportionate assets.

The CBI in its FIR has claimed that Jain purchased 200 bighas of agricultural land in the names of companies controlled by him in Delhi in five years preceding 2018 and “laundered black money” to the tune of several crores of rupees.

It had alleged that Jain controlled these companies in the past either in the form of being one of the directors or by holding one-third of shares of these companies in his name or in the names of his family members or others.

Jain, 57, is the minister for power, home, PWD, industries, urban development, flood, irrigation and water in the Delhi government, apart from heading the crucial health ministry.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had, in February, said he had learnt from sources that the ED was going to arrest Satyendra Jain just before the Punjab assembly elections.

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