ED arrests Delhi health minister Satyendar Jain; it's linked to HP polls says Sisodia

New Delhi, May 30: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Monday arrested Delhi health minister Satyendar Jain in a case connected to hawala transactions related to a Kolkata-based company, officials said.

The agency had said last month that assets worth Rs 4.81 crore of Jain's family and companies "beneficially owned and controlled" by him were provisionally attached as part of a money laundering probe against him.

The minister was taken into custody under criminal sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) after a few hours of questioning, ED officials said. They alleged he was "evasive" in his replies. The minister is expected to be produced before a designated court on Tuesday, PTI reports. The arrest has been made by the federal agency in connection with alleged hawala dealings.

Jain is the minister for health, industries, power, home, urban development and water in the Arvind Kejriwal-led government.

Responding to the arrest, Delhi Dy CM said, "A fake case is being run against Satyendar Jain for eight years. ED called many times before & stopped for many years in between as they couldn't find anything. Now it's started again as he's the Himachal Pradesh poll in charge. He'll be released in a few days as the case is bogus,"

The Himachal Pradesh assembly elections will be held later this year and the AAP is trying to make inroads into the state after tasting success in Punjab earlier this year.

The ED had said last month that assets worth Rs 4.81 crore of Jain's family and companies "beneficially owned and controlled" by him were provisionally attached as part of a money laundering probe against him. In a statement issued then, the ED had said it issued a provisional order under the PMLA to "attach 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 probe found that "during the period 2015-16, when Satyendar Kumar Jain was a public servant, the companies beneficially owned and controlled by him 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," the ED said. The named persons in the attachment order are associates and family members of Jain, officials said.

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 income tax department too had probed these transactions and had issued an order attaching "benami assets" allegedly linked to Jain.