ED Arrests Delhi Minister Satyendra Jain In Money Laundering Case: Looking Back To Where It All Started

Enforcement Directorate (ED) arrested Delhi Health and Home Minister Satyendra Jain on May 30 in connection to reported hawala transactions related to a Kolkata-based company.

Jain was arrested after a special team of the Enforcement Directorate raided his residence in Delhi. Other than Home and Health, Jain holds portfolios of Power, Industries, PWD, Urban Development and Flood and Irrigation and Water in the Arvind Kejriwal-led state government, reported news agency ANI.

Earlier in April this year, the move came after the ED attached immovable properties worth ₹4.81 crores owned by companies named Indo Metal Impex Pvt Ltd, Akinchan Developers Pvt. Ltd and others under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002, in relation to the disproportionate asset and money laundering case registered against the Delhi minister, his wife Poonam Jain, and others as well.

One might also be able to recall that on August 25, 2017, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had registered an official FIR against the AAP leader in a money laundering case.

Allegations Against Satyendra Jain

The Enforcement Directorate had also registered a criminal case against Jain based on this FIR, in which it had claimed that Jain could not describe the source of funds received by the four different companies in which he was a shareholder.

Jain had allegedly floated or bought numerous shell companies in the national capital and reportedly also laundered black money worth ₹16.39 crore through 54 shell companies of three hawala operators of Kolkata, West Bengal.

Furthermore, Jain also reportedly owned many shares in companies named Akinchan, Prayas and Indo. However, after becoming Minister in the APP-led government, all his shares were allegedly transferred to his wife in 2015.

These companies mentioned above reportedly 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 the AAP leader by employing legal means. Furthermore, to the Delhi minister, the companies have laundered money to ₹16.39 crores from 2010 to 2014.

According to government sources, when prosecuted by the I-T Department, Jain had surrendered black money in the form of cash of ₹16.39 crore under Income Disclosure Scheme (IDS) 2016 under the names of Ankush Jain and Vaibhav Jain.

Back in November 2019, the Home Ministry approved Jain's prosecution in cases related to disproportionate assets and money laundering.

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