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Secret cash and gold found: ED; AAP calls it lies
The agency said on Tuesday it recovered ₹2.85 crore in cash, and 133 gold coins during raids carried out at the residence of Delhi health minister Satyendar Jain and premises linked to his associates.
New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Tuesday said it recovered ₹2.85 crore in cash and 133 gold coins during raids carried out at the residence of Delhi health minister Satyendar Jain and premises linked to his associates, alleging that the money and the gold was from “unexplained sources” and was “secreted” in the properties searched by its sleuths on Monday.
The agency, which conducted raids at six or seven locations , however, did not give details of what was recovered directly from Jain’s house, and what was recovered from people allegedly linked to him.
The searches were part of a Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) case that has become the latest point of contention between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which is in power at the Centre, and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which is in power in Delhi. Jain and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal have rejected ED’s contention and described the action as “political vendetta”. The BJP, in response, has rubbished the AAP’s charge, and said that the law must take its course.
Among Jain’s alleged accomplices raided on Monday were Ankush Jain, Vaibhav Jain, Naveen Jain, Yogesh Kumar Jain and Siddharth Jain (directors of Ram Prakash Jewellers Pvt Ltd), and GS Matharoo (chairman of Lala Sher Singh Jivan Vigyan Trust which runs the Prudence Group of Schools). Yogesh Kumar Jain is also a director in the Ram Prakash Jewellers Pvt Ltd.
“Investigation revealed that one member of Lala Sher Singh Jivan Vigyan Trust 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,” ED said in a statement. Accommodation entries are ways to legitimise illegal cash transactions.
“During the search, various incriminating documents and digital records were seized. The cash amounting to ₹2.85 Crore and 133 gold coins weighing 1.8kg in total from unexplained source were found to be secreted in the said premises and were seized under PMLA,” it added in the statement.
Shortly after the statement, Kejriwal, without mentioning ED, tweeted in Hindi: “At this time, prime minister sir is after the AAP with all his might -- particularly after the Delhi and Punjab governments. Lies upon lies upon lies. You have the strength of all the agencies. But god is with us.”
The BJP, however, attacked Kejriwal for backing Jain. Delhi BJP spokesperson Harish Khurana said that ED should also probe the Delhi chief minister “Kejriwal had given a clean chit to Jain after he was arrested by ED in the money laundering case which means he knows what are the links,” Khurana said.
Jain was arrested in the PMLA case on May 30, and is being interrogated in ED custody, which was granted by a Delhi court till June 9. ED told the Delhi high court earlier this week that the minster was not an “accused” in the case at this time, and was only in custody for questioning -- a contention that had also sparked a war of words between the AAP and the Delhi unit of the BJP.
The probe is based on a 2017 first information report (FIR) filed against Jain by the Central Bureau of Investigation.
ED said it already attached land in Delhi worth ₹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 Jain’s relatives Swati Jain, Sushila Jain, and Indu Jain.
“Investigation by ED revealed that during the period 2015-16, when Jain was a public servant, the companies beneficially owned and controlled by him received accommodation entries to the tune of ₹4.81 crore from shell companies against cash transferred to Kolkata-based entry operators through the hawala route,”an ED officer said, asking not to be named.
According to the agency, Jain allegedly used the services of two people from Kolkata, 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 ₹100.
The central anti-money laundering probe agency has found Jain transferred money to Kolkata through the hawala channel and got it back from dummy companies in the form of accommodation entries, even though he could not show the source of the money received.
Accommodation entries are usually done by hawala operators to accommodate illegal money in a company through a shell firm or in the form of cash by breaking large amounts into smaller sums to avoid suspicion. Jain is accused of using laundering money to purchase land in Delhi.
Jain’s counsel, senior advocate N Hari Haran, has said that there is nothing new in ED’s case, and it was “a replica of the CBI case”. Opposing ED’s remand application in a Delhi court, Jain’s counsel argued that even in the CBI case, the agency “has not been able to point out any source of income”.
He said that Jain was an architect who was given a share in the companies named above as a consultant. “I (Jain) was an architect. What the company does is none of my business. I resigned from the company upon assuming office [as a Delhi minister],” the lawyer said on behalf of Jain.
On Friday, opposing a petition by Jain that his lawyer should be allowed to be present during his questioning, ED told the Delhi high court that since there is no FIR or prosecution complaint by the agency against Jain, and that he has been called only for questioning, Jain cannot claim the right to have the presence of his lawyers during the course of recording of his statement under section 50 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
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