The Enforcement Directorate (ED) today said “unexplained” cash of Rs 2.85 crore and 133 gold coins were seized after its day-long raids conducted on the premises of Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain and his alleged associates as part of a money-laundering investigation against him. The ED said those raided “either directly or indirectly assisted” the minister to launder money. The cash and coins were “unexplained” and were kept in a “secret” place, it said in a statement.
The ED conducted a search operation on 6 June under the PMLA, 2002, on the premises of Satyendar Kumar and Poonam Jain “and his accomplices and other persons who had either directly or indirectly assisted him or participated in the processes of money laundering namely, Ankush Jain, Vaibhav Jain, Naveen Jain & Siddharth Jain (Directors of M/s Ram Prakash Jewellers Pvt Ltd), Sh. G S Matharoo (Chairman of M/s Lala Sher Singh Jivan Vigyan Trust which runs Prudence Group of Schools), Yogesh Kumar Jain (Director in M/s Ram Prakash Jewellers Pvt Ltd.), father-in-law of Ankush Jain and M/s Lala Sher Singh Jivan Vigyan Trust”, the statement said.
The ED said, “Investigation revealed that one accomplice member of M/s Lala Sher Singh Jivan Vigyan Trust had provided accommodation entries for transfer of land from company beneficially owned by Satyendar Kumar Satyendar Jain to family members of accomplices in order to alienate the property and to frustrate the process of confiscation.”
Satyendar Jain was arrested on 30 May under the criminal sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) and he is in ED custody till 9 June. From jail, he made a request to let him visit a Jain temple every day, which was rejected by the CBI court where his case is being heard.
The ED had conducted searches on about seven premises, including that of a jeweller, in Delhi and some neighbouring locations yesterday.
The federal agency is investigating Satyendar Jain, a minister without a portfolio in the Arvind Kejriwal government, under the PMLA on charges of alleged hawala dealings.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was coming after the AAP with full force. “You have the power of all agencies, but God is with us,” he tweeted.
Defending his minister, Kejriwal pleaded last week that Satyendar Jain was “honest” and a “patriot”, whom the Modi government was framing in a false case. He said Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia was next on the target list of the central agencies and was likely to be arrested.
“I have come to know from the same sources that in the next few days the central government is going to arrest Manish Sisodia,” Kejriwal said last week. “The Centre has asked all central agencies to prepare a fake case against Sisodia and arrest him.”
In April this year, the central probe agency attached land in Delhi worth Rs 4.81 crore belonging to companies linked to the case — Akinchan Developers, Indo Metal Impex, Paryas Infosolutions, Mangalyatan Projects, and J J Ideal Estate — and Satyendar Jain’s relatives Swati Satyendar Jain, Sushila Satyendar Jain and Indu Satyendar Jain.
“Investigation by ED revealed that during the period 2015-16, when Satyendar 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 companies against cash transferred to Kolkata-based entry operators through the hawala route,” said the agency that investigates financial crimes.
The probe found that Kolkata-based shell companies were controlled by Rajender Bansal and Jiivendra Mishra, who admitted during questioning that their main business was to provide accommodation entries through shell companies to various beneficiaries, whether in the form of share capital or unsecured loans at a commission of 15 to 20 paisa per Rs 100, the ED said.
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