New Delhi: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Monday filed a chargesheet against Delhi health minister Satyendar Jain, his wife Poonam Jain and four business associates and relatives – Ajit Prasad Jain, Vaibhav Jain, Sunil Kumar Jain and Ayush Jain – in a disproportionate assets case.
The minister has been charged with amassing assets worth Rs 1.47 crore, which, according to the CBI, was “217.20%” above his known sources of income between 2015-17.
According to Mint, the disproportionate assets case was registered against the accused on August 24, 2017 covering assets amassed during February 14, 2015 and May 31, 2017. The move has come just days after the home ministry granted sanction to the agency to prosecute the Delhi minister.
The chargesheet alleges that the funds in question were routed to four companies controlled by Jain and his relatives through “accommodation entries” – a term used for hawala transfers – in Kolkata-based shell companies. The Aam Aadmi Party leader and his relatives had stakes in Prayas Info Solutions, Akinchan Developers, Mangalyatan Projects and Indo Metal Impex Pvt Ltd. – and except the last one, Jain was a director in all the companies.
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According to the CBI, Jain bought land under his firms’ names in the last five years and “laundered black money” worth several crores, Scroll.in reported.
Although he resigned from the directorship before Delhi assembly elections in 2013, family members continued to hold shares in these companies and his shares were transferred to his wife on February 10, 2015 through whom he kept “effective” control over the firms, the agency has alleged.
It is further alleged that three companies – Prayas Info Solutions, Akinchan Developers, and Mangalyatan Projects – received Rs 1.53 crore as accommodation entries from Kolkata-based shell companies.
The chargesheet against the accused was filed in New Delhi’s Patiala House Court under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code and the Prevention of Corruption Act.
Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal took to Twitter to say that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was pushing the case against Jain for attempting to regularise unauthorised colonies in Delhi. There are around 1,700 unauthorised colonies in the national Capital. The “people who live in the unauthorised colonies that Satyendar Jain was trying to regularise, will respond to this allegation,” he wrote.