ED arrests Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain

Enforcement Directorate officials have confirmed that they have arrested Delhi minister and AAP leader Satyendar Jai in a case connected to hawala transactions related to a Kolkata-based company, according to news agency ANI.

Jain is the minister of health, power, home, PWD, industries, urban development, flood, irrigation and water, in the Arvind Kejriwal-led Delhi government.

In April this year, the ED had attached properties worth ₹4.81 crore of the family and companies “beneficially owned and controlled” by Delhi minister Satyendar Jain in connection with a money-laundering probe.

The ED had earlier, issued a provisional order under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) for the attachment of the assets.

The ED case of money laundering against the AAP minister stems from an August 2017 FIR by the CBI against him and others on charges of alleged possession of disproportionate assets.

Kejriwal in February had said that he has learnt from sources the ED was going to arrest Satyendar Jain just before the Punjab assembly elections and accused the Centre of targeting the Aam Aadmi Party after realising the BJP “would lose” the polls.

The AAP won the Punjab assembly polls in March and has formed its government in the border state with Bhagwant Mann as the chief minister.

In 2018, the ED had questioned the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader in connection with the case.

Reacting sharply to the arrest, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said Jain has been held in an eight-year-old “fake” case as he is the AAP’s incharge 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 incharge 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. LiveMint