Home Ministry Seeks Presidential Sanction To Prosecute AAP's Satyendar Jain

The Union home ministry has requested the president for grant of sanction to prosecute AAP leader and former Delhi minister Satyendar Jain in a money-laundering case being investigated by the Enforcement Directorate, sources said on Friday.

The sanction against the 60-year-old politician has been sought under Section 218 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, they said.

The ministry requested the sanction from the president of India on the basis of an Enforcement Directorate (ED) investigation and the presence of "adequate proof", they added.

The federal agency booked Jain in a money-laundering case linked to alleged hawala dealings and arrested him in May 2022.

Jain held the health, power and a few other portfolios when he was taken into Enforcement Directorate custody.

He is currently out on bail and has been charge-sheeted by the Enforcement Directorate.

The money-laundering case stems from an August 2017 FIR filed against Jain and others by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on charges of alleged possession of disproportionate assets.

The CBI filed a chargesheet in December 2018, stating that the alleged disproportionate assets were to the tune of Rs 1.47 crore, about 217 per cent more than Jain's known sources of income during 2015-17.

The Enforcement Directorate had earlier said its probe found that "during 2015-16, Satyendar Jain was a public servant and four companies (beneficially owned and controlled by him) received accommodation entries (hawala) to the tune of Rs 4.81 crore from shell (bogus) companies against cash transferred to Kolkata-based entry operators through the hawala route".

"These amounts were utilised for direct purchase of agricultural land or for the repayment of loan taken for purchase of agricultural land in and around Delhi," the agency had said.

Former Delhi chief minister and AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal had earlier defended Jain, saying he was as a "hardcore honest and patriot" person who was being framed in a "false case". 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)