The Enforcement Directorate has attached assets worth Rs 4.81 crore linked to Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain, his family and companies. The ED said that the assets were ‘beneficially owned and controlled’ by Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Satyendar Jain and have been provisionally attached in connection with a money-laundering probe against him.
The federal agency had questioned Jain in 2018 in connection with the case. Jain earlier used to work in the Central Public Works Department and later quit his job to set up an architectural consultancy firm.
The ED said it has attached immovable properties worth Rs 4.81 crore belonging to Akinchan Developers Pvt. Ltd., Indo Metal Impex Pvt Ltd, Paryas Infosolutions Pvt. Ltd., Manglayatan Projects Pvt. Ltd., J.J. Ideal Estate Pvt. Ltd., Swati Jain, wife of Vaibhav Jain, Sushila Jain, wife of Ajit Prasad Jain, and Indu Jain, wife of Sunil Jain.
The ED claimed to have found in its probe between 2015 and 2016 that Satyendar Kumar Jain, as a public servant, benefitted the companies owned and controlled by him. These companies received accommodation entries to the tune of Rs 4.81 crore from shell (paper) companies against cash transferred to Kolkata-based entry operators through the hawala route. “These amounts were utilised for direct purchase of land or for repayment of loan taken for the purchase of agricultural land in and around Delhi,” said the central agency.
The money laundering case against the AAP minister stems from an August 2017 FIR filed by the CBI against him and others on charges of alleged possession of disproportionate assets. The CBI 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.
The CBI has also claimed that the laundered funds were allegedly used to purchase over 200 bighas of land in Auchandi, Bawana, Karala and Mohammed Mazvi villages in Delhi between 2010-16. The Income Tax department too had probed these transactions and issued an order attaching ‘Benami assets’ allegedly linked to Jain.
(With PTI inputs)