Satyendar Jain, the Delhi Health and Home Minister, was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Monday in connection with alleged hawala transactions involving a Kolkata-based company. He was arrested After a special ED team raided Jain's home in Delhi.
In the Aam Aadmi Party-led Delhi government, Jain holds the portfolios of Power, PWD, Industries, Urban Development, Flood and Irrigation and Water in addition to Home and Health.
The action followed the ED attaching immovable properties worth Rs 4.81 crore owned by companies named Akinchan Developers Pvt. Ltd, Indo Metal Impex Pvt. Ltd, and others in April this year under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 in connection with the disproportionate asset and money laundering case registered against Jain, his wife Poonam Jain, and others. On August 25, 2017, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) filed a FIR against Jain in connection with a money laundering case.
Based on this FIR, the ED filed a criminal case against the AAP leader, alleging that he could not explain the source of funds received by four firms in which he was a stakeholder. Jain is said to have formed or purchased a number of shell companies in Delhi. He is also accused of laundering Rs 16.39 crore through 54 shell firms controlled by three Kolkata-based hawala operators.
Jain is accused of owning a huge number of shares in the Prayas, Indo, and Akinchan firms. According to reports, after joining Kejriwal's cabinet as a Minister, all of his holdings were transferred to his wife in 2015. These companies used to send cash payments to their Kolkata equivalents, who would then "route back the money" to Jain via legal ways under the guise of buying shares. Between 2010 and 2014, the firms are said to have laundered Rs 16.39 crores to Satyendra Jain.
According to official sources, Jain submitted black money in the shape of cash of Rs 16.39 crore under the Income Disclosure Scheme (IDS) 2016 on the benami names of Vaibhav Jain and Ankush Jain when prosecuted by the I-T Department.
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