The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Friday arrested two businessmen, Vaibhav Jain and Ankush Jain, allegedly linked to Delhi Minister Satyendar Jain, under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) following questioning as they were being “evasive.”
Last month, the agency had searched the premises of the duo alleged to be “business associates” of Jain.
Satyendar Jain, 57, was arrested by the ED on May 30 under PMLA and is currently undergoing judicial custody.
He is now Minister without portfolio in the Delhi Government. Earlier, Jain held health, power and a few other portfolios.
The agency has conducted at least two rounds of searches against his family and associates after it arrested the Minister in the PMLA case linked to alleged hawala dealings.
The ED had 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 associates.
The premises searched included those of Ankush Jain and Vaibhav Jain, Satyendar Jain’s wife Poonam Jain, Naveen Jain and Siddharth Jain (directors of Ram Prakash Jewellers Pvt Ltd), GS Matharoo (chairman of Lala Sher Singh Jivan Vigyan Trust which runs Prudence group of schools), Yogesh Kumar Jain (director in Ram Prakash Jewellers Pvt Ltd.), father-in-law of Ankush Jain and Lala Sher Singh Jivan Vigyan
Trust.
However, AAP chief spokesperson Saurabh Bharadwaj had alleged at that time that the ED’s raid at Satyendar Jain’s residence was a complete failure. “Only Rs 2.79 lakh were found by the ED, which could not be seized as every penny was accounted for,” he said, showing a copy of the agency’s seizure memo.
In April, the agency had attached assets worth Rs 4.81 crore of Satyendar Jain’s family and companies “beneficially owned and controlled” by him as part of the probe.
The ED had, in a statement then, said the provisional order attached “immovable properties worth Rs 4.81 crore belonging to Akinchan Developers Pvt Ltd., Indo Metal Impex Pvt Ltd, Paryas Infosolutions Pvt Ltd., Manglayatan Projects Pvt Ltd., J J Ideal Estate Pvt Ltd., Swati Jain, wife of Vaibhav Jain, Sushila Jain, wife of Ajit Prasad Jain, and Indu Jain, wife of Sunil Jain.”
The probe found, 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 said.