The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Monday arrested Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader and Delhi Government Minister Satyendar Jain in connection with a money laundering case.

Jain —  Minister for Health, Industries, Power, Home, Urban Development and Water in the Delhi Government headed by Arvind Kejriwal — was arrested under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) after a few hours of questioning as he was evasive in his replies, officials said.

In January, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had predicted the imminent arrest of Satyendar Jain. “We got the information from our sources that in the coming few days, before the Punjab election, the ED is coming to arrest Satyendar Jain. The Centre had raided Jain twice before and found nothing. Now if they want to come again, they are welcome. Because it is the election season and when the BJP sees it is losing, they deploy all Central agencies. So it is evident that there will be raids, arrests will be made,” Kejriwal had then said.

Jain, 57, will be produced before a designated court here on Tuesday and the agency is likely to plead for his custodial interrogation.

The agency had said last month that assets worth `4.81 crore of Jain’s family and companies “beneficially owned and controlled” by him were provisionally attached as part of a money laundering probe against him. In 2018, the ED had questioned Jain in connection with the case.

The ED had provisionally attached immovable properties worth `4.81 crore belonging to Akinchan Developers Pvt Ltd, Indo Metal Impex Pvt Ltd, Paryas Infosolutions Pvt Ltd, Manglayatan Projects Pvt Ltd, JJ Ideal Estate Pvt Ltd, Swati Jain, wife of Vaibhav Jain, Sushila Jain, wife of Ajit Prasad Jain, Indu Jain, wife of Sunil  Jain under the PMLA.

The named persons in the attachment order are associates and family members of Jain, officials said.

The ED had initiated money laundering investigation on the basis of a CBI FIR dated August 24, 2017 against Satyendar Jain and others under Section 109 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) for abetment of an offence and relevant provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act.  

“Investigation by ED revealed that during the period 2015-16, when Satyendar Kumar Jain was a public servant, the above mentioned companies beneficially owned and controlled by him received accommodation entries to the tune of `4.81 crore from shell companies against cash transferred to Kolkata-based entry operators through Hawala route,” the ED had said after attaching the properties of Jain and his relatives.

“These amounts were utilised for direct purchase of land or for the repayment of loans taken for purchase of agricultural land in and around Delhi. Accordingly, immovable properties worth `4.81 crore in the form of land belonging to the above mentioned companies/individuals have been provisionally attached as per Section 5 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act,” the agency had said last month.

The Income Tax Department too had probed these transactions and had issued an order attaching “benami assets” allegedly linked to Jain.

The move drew sharp reaction from the AAP. Reacting to Jain’s arrest, Delhi Deputy Chief Minister and senior AAP leader Manish Sisodia said Jain was ensuring that the BJP is defeated in the upcoming Assembly polls in Himachal Pradesh and that is why the BJP-led Centre  unleashed ED on the senior AAP leader.

“It has been eight years since a fake case has been going on against Satyendar Jain. The ED has called him many times in these years and then for some time in between the ED stopped calling him because they could not find anything on him. But this trend has now started again because Jain is the election in-charge for the AAP in Himachal Pradesh where the BJP is badly losing ground against the Aam Aadmi Party in the upcoming Assembly polls,” Sisodia said.