Satyendar Jain to be produced before court today in money laundering case
Highlights
- Delhi health minister and AAP leader Satyendar Jain was arrested in a money-laundering case.
- Ex-AAP leader Kumar Vishwas took a dig at party leaders Arvind Kejriwal and Raghav Chadha.
- Manish Sisodia alleged vendetta politics and said Jain was arrested in an 8-year-old "fake" case.
Satyendar Jain arrested by ED: Former Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Kumar Vishwas on Monday launched a no-holds-barred attack on Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and party's Rajya Sabha MP Raghav Chadha after the arrest of Satyendar Jain in a money laundering case by the Enforcement Directorate (ED). Jain, considered to be a close confidant of Kejriwal, is a Minister in AAP's Delhi government and holds the Health portfolio.
Vishwas, who quit the AAP in 2018, said that he had warned Kejriwal and raised the matter in AAP's Political Affairs Committee (PAC) when the case against Jain first surfaced. The noted poet said he had asked Jain to give clarification but he was snubbed. Without taking the name of Raghav Chadha, AAP's Rajya Sabha MP from Punjab and also a practising chartered CA, Vishwas said that Jain was given a clean chit by the CA.
BJP demands Jain's sacking
Meanwhile, the BJP has demanded from Arvind Kejriwal to sack Jain. Party's Delhi unit chief Adesh Gupta said that his party had raised the issue of "corruption" by the AAP and its leaders in the past.
"Kejriwal always kept mum on corruption charges against his party leaders. The arrest of Jain by the ED has come days after an AAP minister was arrested and sacked in Punjab people want Kejriwal to speak about it," Gupta said.
The Delhi BJP chief was referring to former Punjab Health Minister Vijay Singla who was sacked from the state Cabinet last week over graft charges, and was arrested shortly afterwards.
Satyendra Jain case
Jain was on Monday arrested by the ED under criminal sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) after a few hours of questioning. He was summoned by the ED seven times earlier but never arrested. Officials said that he was taken into custody in a case connected to hawala transactions related to a Kolkata-based company.
Jain (57), the minister for health, industries, power, home, urban development and water in the Arvind Kejriwal-led government, will be produced before a court in the national capital today.
In another related development, the AAP has rubbished the charges against Jain. Party's Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh said that the agency arrested Jain in a baseless case to defame the AAP. Delhi's Deputy CM Manish Sisodia dubbed it vendetta politics and said Jain has been arrested in an eight-year-old "fake" case.
