NEW DELHI: President Droupadi Murmu on Tuesday granted sanction to the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to prosecute AAP leader and former Delhi minister Satyendar Jain in a money laundering case, news agency PTI reported, citing sources.
The federal agency arrested Jain in May 2022 in connection with the money-laundering case involving alleged hawala transactions. At the time of his ED detention, Jain was responsible for health, power and several other portfolios.
The Ministry of Home Affairs, citing an ED investigation and sufficient evidence, sought presidential sanction to prosecute 60-year-old former Delhi health minister under Section 218 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, sources told PTI.
The prosecution of public servants and judges falls under Section 218 of the BNSS, which details the process for initiating legal proceedings against officials for alleged misconduct during their tenure.
Sources indicate that the ED plans to submit a new supplementary charge sheet to inform the court about the President’s approval for prosecution sanction.
According to a TOI report, during its investigation, ED questioned Jain, his close associates and family members on the details of a money trail seeking to establish the source of around Rs 27.7 crore used by five shell companies — Prayas Infosolutions Pvt Ltd, Indo Metal Impex Pvt Ltd, JJ Ideal Estate Pvt Ltd, Akinchan Developers Pvt Ltd and Mangalyatan Projects Pvt Ltd — to purchase the 123 acres from 14 people.
Jain’s chartered accountant JP Mohta and three Kolkata based hawala operators — Jivendra Mishra, Abhishek Chokhani and Rajendra Bansal — in their recorded statements claimed that “all the (five) shell companies incorporated by Jain were actually being controlled by him through his wife, relatives and other close associates. All of them corroborated the fact that cash was paid to the hawala dealers and ‘entries’ (unsecured loans) were received in shell companies”.
ED had claimed that these five shell companies spent Rs 27.69 crore to acquire the land parcels. Jain was a minister in the AAP govt in Delhi from Dec 28, 2013 to February 14, 2014 and again from February 2015 till much after his arrest in 2022.