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Found ₹2.85 cr cash, gold coins in Satyendar Jain raids, says ED. Arvind Kejriwal responds
Six or seven places including Satyendar Jain’s residence and a jewellery shop in south-east Delhi were searched by ED on Monday following the AAP minister’s arrest last week
New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has recovered ₹2.85 crore in cash and 133 gold coins during raids on former Delhi health minister Satyendar Jain and his associates including a jewellery shop in connection with a money-laundering probe, the agency said in a statement on Tuesday.
Six or seven places, including Jain’s residence and a jewellery shop in south-east Delhi were searched by ED on Monday following the Delhi minister’s arrest last week. Tuesday’s ED statement did not give a break-up of the seizures from various locations.
Jain was arrested under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act on May 30 and is being interrogated in ED custody, granted by a Delhi court till June 9.
Soon after the ED statement, Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, who has repeatedly accused the agencies of trying to frame the senior AAP leader, took a swipe at PM Narendra Modi without referring to the statement.
Kejriwal tweeted in Hindi: “At this time, prime minister is after the AAP with all his might -- particularly the Delhi and Punjab governments. Lies upon lies upon lies. You have the strength of all the agencies. But God is with us.”
A detailed statement by ED on Tuesday said searches under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) were carried out against Jain and his wife Poonam Jain, and his accomplices who either directly or indirectly were alleged to have assisted him or participated in the process of money laundering.
On Monday, ED officials carried out searches at premises linked to Ankush Jain, Vaibhav Jain, Naveen Jain and Siddharth Jain (directors of Ram Prakash Jewellers Pvt Ltd), G S Matharoo (chairman of Lala Sher Singh Jivan Vigyan Trust which runs Prudence Group of Schools) and Yogesh Kumar Jain (director in Ram Prakash Jewellers Pvt Ltd), father-in-law of Ankush Jain and Lala Sher Singh Jivan Vigyan Trust.
“Investigation revealed that one accomplice member of Lala Sher Singh Jivan Vigyan Trust had 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 ED statement said.
“During the search, various incriminating documents and digital records were seized. The cash amounting to ₹2.85 crore and 133 gold coins weighing 1.80 kg in total from unexplained source were found to be secreted in the said premises and were seized under PMLA,” it said.
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.
Kejriwal last week said that Jain is honest and a patriot, who was being framed in a false case. He also said that deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia is next on the target list of the central agencies and is likely to be arrested.
ED said it has 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,” according to the ED probe.
Jain allegedly used services of two Kolkata-based persons - 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 accused Jain of transferring money to Kolkata through the hawala channel and getting it back from dummy companies in the form of accommodation entries, saying the minister could not show the source of the money received.
The probe is based on a 2017 first information report filed against Satyendar Jain him by the Central Bureau of Investigation.
