Aam Aadmi Party MP Sanjay Singh on Wednesday slammed Bharatiya Janata Party for the arrest of Delhi Health Minister Satyendra Jain by ED in a money laundering case and said it was a "false, baseless case."
"The party whose national president was caught on camera taking bribe, which did a scam with the coffins of martyrs, did a scam in Rafale, they are preaching us. It's like Gabbar Singh is giving a sermon of peace," Mr Singh alleged at a press conference here.
The AAP MP expressed confidence that Satyendra Jain will come out of the case.
He claimed that "nothing was found" in the CBI probe against Mr Jain but ED has made the arrest as Himachal Pradesh will go to the polls this year. Mr Jain is the AAP incharge of Himachal Pradesh.
"Is the ED office running from the BJP office?" Mr Singh asked.
On May 30, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) arrested Delhi Health and Home Minister Satyendar Jain in connection with alleged hawala transactions related to a Kolkata-based company. Mr Jain was arrested after a special ED team raided his place in Delhi.
On August 25, 2017, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had filed an FIR against Mr 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 Mr Jain could not explain the source of funds received by four companies in which he was a shareholder.
Mr 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.
Mr 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 Mr Jain by employing legal means. The companies have reportedly laundered money to the tune of Rs 16.39 crores from 2010 to 2014 to Satyendra Jain.
As per government sources, when prosecuted by the I-T Department, Mr 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 Mr Jain in cases related to disproportionate assets and money laundering.
Himachal Pradesh Assembly elections are scheduled to be held later this year.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a press release)
