Disclosing details of its seizures made during searches conducted on the premises of Delhi cabinet minister Satyendar Jain and his family members, the Enforcement Directorate said it has confiscated £285,000 in unaccounted cash and 133 gold coins weighing 1. 8 kg, besides various “incriminating documents and digital records” in connection with the money laundering allegations against the AAP minister.
The ED also said that it has searched the premises of several accused in the case who “assisted” Jain in money laundering, identifying Ankush Jain, Vaibhav Jain, Naveen Jain and Siddharth Jain and Yogesh Jain (all directors of Ram Prakash Jewellers), G S Matharoo chairman of Lala Sher Singh Jivan Vigyan Trust which runs Prudence Group of Schools. The ED’s claim came even as AAP continued to stand by Jain, who was arrested on May 30, and refused to sack him as health minister.
Contradicting statements made by Kejriwal and other AAP leaders that Jain was innocent and that even the CBI “had not” found anything against him, the agency cited a chargesheet filed by the CBI on December 3, 2018 in which the latter had held the former Delhi health minister and his wife Poonam Jain, along with accomplices Vaibhav Jain and Ankush Jain, liable in the process of acquiring disproportionate assets.
Lashing out at the Centre for trying to implicate Satyendar Jain in a allegedly “false case”, CM Arvind Kejriwal alleged PM Modi was on a “witch hunt” against AAP governments. Denying ED claims, AAP alleged the agency could barely manage to find a cash of Rs 279,000 and did not even seize that since it was all accounted for. Deputy CM Manish Sisodia said BJP was trying to showcase some unknown person as close to Jain.
The minister who has been remanded in ED custody is being questioned on various transactions linked to Kolkata-based hawala dealers from whom four shell companies, allegedly linked to Jain, had received over £1.6 million in ‘unsecured loans’. At least three transactions amounting to £460,000 are for the the period of 2015-16 when he was a minister in the AAP government.
The agency has also accused a member of the Lala Sher Singh Jivan Vigyan Trust of having “provided accommodation entries for transfer of land from company beneficially owned by Satyendar Jain to family members of accomplices in order to alienate the property and to frustrate the process of confiscation”.
“The CBI filed chargesheet on December 3, 2018 against Satyendar Jain, Poonam Jain, Ajit Prasad Jain, Sunil Jain, Vaibhav Jain and Ankush Jain wherein it has been stated that Satyendar Jain while holding the office as a minister in the government of Delhi, during the period February 14, 2015 to May 31, 2017 had acquired assets which are disproportionate to his known sources of income”.
