Satyendar Jain was supposed to lead the AAP election campaign in Himachal where BJP may lose badly. By arresting Jain, BJP has dented the prospects of Aam Aadmi Party in Himachal. Manish Sisodiya told the media that “Satyendar Jain will be released in a few days as the case is completely fake”.
The probe agency, which investigates financial crimes, alleged that the minister in the Arvind Kejriwal government was involved in hawala transactions with a Kolkata-based firm in 2015-16. The probe agency alleged that the minister in the Arvind Kejriwal government was involved in hawala transactions with a Kolkata-based firm in 2015-16. Kejriwal during an AAP rally in January this year had said his sources have told him that his colleague Satyendar Jain would likely be arrested by the Enforcement Directorate. The arrest also comes nearly two months after properties worth Rs 4.81 crore owned by the Aam Aadmi Party leader and his family were attached by the Enforcement Directorate.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had filed a case against Jain and his family in August 2017 for alleged money laundering up to Rs 1.62 crore. The CBI alleged Jain and his family set up four shell firms – companies with no real business – to launder Rs 11.78 crore in 2011-12 and Rs 4.63 crore in 2015-16. The Enforcement Directorate started its probe into the money laundering allegations based on the CBI’s first information report, or FIR.
The arrest would likely spark a fresh war between Arvind Kejriwal, the Chief Minister of Delhi, a Union Territory, and the central government, which the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and other opposition leaders like Mamata Banerjee and Telangana’s K Chandrashekar Rao have often allegedly used central agencies to harass them.
Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia tweeted this evening the arrest was made with an eye on the upcoming election in Himachal Pradesh, where Mr Jain is the AAP’s in-charge. “A fake case has been run against Satyendar Jain for eight years. Till now ED (Enforcement Directorate) has called many times. In between, ED stopped calling for many years as they did not get anything. Now they started again because Satyendar Jain is the election in-charge of Himachal,” Sisodia twitted.
Back then, Jain had also attacked the BJP-controlled central government and said he was ready to be arrested.
