The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has attached assets worth Rs 7.44 crore from allegedly controlled companies by former Delhi minister and AAP leader Satyendra Kumar Jain. This action was taken on 15 September under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002. The agency’s money laundering inquiry has begun from a CBI case registered in 2017, alleging Jain of earning disproportionate assets between February 2015 and May 2017 while being a minister in the AAP Delhi government. In December 2018, the CBI filed a charge sheet against his, his wife Poonam Jain and others. In March 2022, the ED attached assets worth Rs 4.81 crore in the case and filed a prosecution complaint, which was later taken cognizance by a Delhi court. With the latest action, now the total amount of attachment has increased to Rs 12.25 crore – according to the agency, this amount represents the entire value of disproportionate assets allegedly earned by Jain.
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According to the ED, soon after demonetisation in November 2016, Satyendra Jain’s close associates Ankush Jain and Vaibhav Jain had deposited Rs 7.44 crore as advance tax under the Income Disproportionate Scheme (IDS). He had declared assets worth Rs 16.53 crore in the name of four companies, which the authorities later determined that they were under the ownership and control of Satyendra Jain. Both the Income Tax Department and the Delhi High Court considered Jain’s colleagues as benami holders, and the Supreme Court also upheld this conclusion, rejecting their appeals.
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Subsequently, the ED shared its conclusions with the CBI, which filed a supplementary charge sheet against Jain, increasing allegations of disproportionate assets. The ED has said that it will soon file a supplementary prosecution complaint in the case. Meanwhile, the case is going on in the Rowz Avenue Court in New Delhi.