PMLA case: ED files chargesheet against Satyendar Jain

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Wednesday filed a chargesheet in a Special Court against Delhi Minister Satyendar Jain and others in a money-laundering case. Jain and other two accused in the case are presently in judicial custody.

Jain, 57, was arrested by the ED on May 30 under the criminal sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

He is a minister without a portfolio in the Aam Aadmi Party-led Delhi government. Jain has held health, power and few other charges.

Earlier, the agency had also conducted at least two rounds of raids against the minister's family and associates. It also arrested two of his business associates this month.

The agency had claimed to have seized ''unexplained'' cash worth Rs 2.85 crore and 133 gold coins after the first round of raids conducted on June 6 against Jain's family and others.

The ED had alleged that ''during the period 2015-16, when Satyendar Kumar Jain was a public servant, the companies beneficially owned and controlled by him received accommodation entries to the tune of Rs 4.81 crore from shell (paper) companies against cash transferred to Kolkata-based entry operators through the hawala route''.

''These amounts were utilised for direct purchase of land or for repayment of loan taken for the purchase of agricultural land in and around Delhi,'' the ED had said. The money laundering case against the AAP minister stems from an August 2017 FIR filed by the CBI against him and others on charges of alleged possession of disproportionate assets.

A chargesheet was filed by the CBI in December, 2018, stating that the alleged disproportionate assets were worth Rs 1.47 crore, about 217 per cent more than his known sources of income, during 2015-17.

(With agency inputs)