Senior AAP minister Satyendar Jain may have denied the allegations of wrongdoings and corruption, levelled by his former colleague Kapil Mishra, but his company itself has accepted that it earned money through hawala.
In the documents filed during the Centre’s Income Declaration Scheme, Jain’s company Akinchan Developers Pvt Ltd disclosed undeclared income of Rs 16.54 crore. The company had said that it had received the amount through hawala.
Satyendar Jain had founded Akinchan Developers on March 7, 2008 and was a founding director. In 2013, when the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government came into power for the first time, he resigned from the director’s position of the company but retained 2.5 lakh shares that he had. In 2015, he transferred his shares to his wife Poonam Jain.
Last year, when the Central Government announced the Income Declaration Scheme, the company appointed two new directors and declared the undisclosed income under the scheme.
Vaibhav Jain and Ankush Jain were appointed as additional directors in the firm on January 22, 2016 and soon after, all the other directors of the company resigned. Ankush and Vaibhav were appointed company’s directors on September 29, 2016 and then they declared the undisclosed income under their name.
Sateyendar Jain, who hold portfolios of Health, Industries, PWD, Power, Home and Urban Development under the Cabinet headed by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, always held that he did not declare the income under the scheme but the Income Tax department says that the declared income was earned when Jain was the at the helm of company’s affairs.
The company, Akinchan Developers, was issued a notice on September 7, 2016 under the Section 148 of the Income Tax Act. The notice was in regard with the transfer of money to the company by Kolkata’s alleged hawala operator Jeevendra Mishra.
According to the accommodation entry of the transfers, Akinchan Developers did not pay taxes on the income of Rs 1.83 crore and Rs 1.1 crore in the year 2011-12 and 2012-13 respectively.
After the Income Tax notice, directors Ankush and Vaibhav Jain declared over Rs 16 crore income under the IDS scheme and paid 45 per cent tax on it.
Because the income was declared by the company when Satyendar Jain had given up the position, he has argued that he had nothing to do with the tax evasion and the declaration.
Satyendra Jain faces a slew of investigations by different central agencies over irregularities by his companies and also for appointing his daughter in the Health Ministry.
The CBI has registered a preliminary enquiry against Jain to inquire into allegations of money laundering against him.
It is alleged that Jain was involved in money laundering to the tune of Rs 4.63 crore while being a public servant during 2015-16 through Prayas Info Solutions Private Limited, Akinchand Developers Private Limited and Managalyatan Projects Private Limited.
The matter was referred to the CBI by Income Tax Department against the new Benami Transactions Prohibitions Act.
