New Delhi:
Union Minister Smriti Irani on Thursday lashed out at the Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal questioning his silence over the arrest of Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain in a money laundering case. Irani alleged that the CM is rather blaming the investigative agencies.
Irani said, “Delhi HC said in its order that Rs 16.39 crore black money was moved to four shell companies through hawala operators by Satyendra Jain, still CM Arvind Kejriwal is silent on it and is still blaming the investigating agencies.”
“Satyendra Jain turned unauthorised colonies into authorised ones. We want an answer. Don’t belittle High Court and investigative agencies,” she added.
Earlier on Thursday, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) approached the Delhi High court challenging the order of a special court allowing Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain to have counsel during interrogation.
Special Judge Geetanjali Goel on May 31 granted the custody of Jain to ED till June 9 in a money laundering case.
Advocate Zoheb Hossain for ED mentioned the matter before the bench of Acting Chief Justice Vipin Sanghi. The Court agreed to hear the petition on Friday.
The special judge at the request of Satyendar Jain had allowed his counsel to be present during interrogation at distance from where he can see but cannot hear the questioning.
The ED had sought custody of Jain in the money laundering matter to unearth the trail of money and its source. It was alleged that the accused was involved in money laundering through accommodation entries in the companies.
On May 30, the ED arrested Jain in connection with alleged hawala transactions related to a Kolkata-based company. Jain was arrested after a special ED team raided his place in Delhi.
On August 25, 2017, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) filed an FIR against Jain in a money laundering case.
The ED had registered a criminal case against the AAP leader based on this FIR in which it had been alleged that Jain could not explain the source of funds received by four companies in which he was a shareholder.
Jain had reportedly floated or bought several shell companies in Delhi. He also allegedly laundered black money worth Rs 16.39 crore through 54 shell companies of three hawala operators of Kolkata.
Jain allegedly owned a large number of shares in companies named Prayas, Indo, and Akinchan. However, after becoming Minister in Kejriwal’s government, all his shares were transferred to his wife in 2015, as per reports.
These companies used to transfer cash payments to their Kolkata counterparts and these companies would later, under the ruse of buying shares, “route back the money”
to Jain by employing legal means. The companies have reportedly laundered money to the tune of Rs 16.39 crore from 2010 to 2014 to Satyendar Jain.
As per government sources, when prosecuted by the I-T Department, Jain surrendered black money in form of cash of Rs 16.39 crore under Income Disclosure Scheme (IDS) 2016 on benami names of Vaibhav Jain and Ankush Jain.
In November 2019, the Home Ministry approved the prosecution of Jain in cases related to disproportionate assets and money laundering.
(With inputs from ANI)
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