MHA grants sanction to prosecute Delhi minister Satyendar Jain in disproportionate assets case; AAP leader had denied charges

The Ministry of Home Affairs on Thursday granted a sanction of prosecution to indict Delhi home minister Satyendar Jain in a case registered against him by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on 24 August, 2017, for allegedly acquiring assets disproportionate to his known sources of income. Raids were conducted at four different places and a case was subsequently registered in the matter in 2017. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) had denied the charges and accused the BJP of misusing the CBI and the Income Tax Department, even as Jain, who holds several important portfolios, including health and public works development, had confirmed the news, tweeting: “The CBI has reached my home for searches.” [caption id=“attachment_5642731” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File photo of Delhi minister Satyendar Jain[/caption] In April 2017, the CBI had lodged a preliminary inquiry against Jain and others in a case of alleged money laundering to the tune of Rs 4.63 crore in 2015-16. The investigative agency had also questioned Jain in June 2017, accusing him of being involved in the crime through Kolkata-based companies Prayas Info Pvt Ltd, Akichand Developers and Mangalyatan Project Pvt Ltd, a charge he denied. The inquiry against the minister was registered on the basis of evidence the CBI collected against him, claiming he was involved in money laundering despite being a public servant. In February, the agency had recovered property documents and bank deposit slips of about Rs 2 crore allegedly linked to Jain and companies where he was the director during searches at the homes of Delhi Dental Council registrar  Rishi Raj. The documents were recovered two days after Raj’s arrest for allegedly demanding Rs 4.73 lakh from dentist Sanjay Arora for relaxing proceedings against the latter. It was later alleged that the bribe taken by the council registrar was meant for Jain. The incident drew attention to the purported link between the Delhi Dental Council and Jain. The CBI later also found 41 cheque books in the AAP leader and his wife Poonam’s name, and in the name of a private estate firm. It then claimed to have recovered 500 grams of gold and Rs 24 lakh in cash, but it was not clear whether these were also linked to Jain. The CBI had shared the documents with the Income Tax Department. The agency had also refuted AAP’s claims that Jain had already handed over these documents to the agency, reported India Today. “This is the first time that these documents have come before us. The seized documents are original papers and earlier no such documents were submitted before us,” the news channel had quoted a CBI source as saying. With inputs from ANI