Enforcement Directorate arrests Delhi Minister Satyendar Jain in money laundering case

NEW DELHI: Delhi minister and AAP leader Satyendar Jain was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Monday in connection with a money laundering case, officials said.

Reacting sharply to the arrest, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said Jain has been held in an eight-year-old "fake" case as he is the AAP's incharge for the Himachal Pradesh assembly elections and the BJP is afraid of losing the polls.

"A fake case has been going on against Satyendar Jain for eight years. He has been called by the ED several times so far. The ED had stopped calling him for some time because it did not find anything against him. Now it has again started because he is the incharge of Himachal Pradesh elections," Sisodia said in a tweet in Hindi.

"The BJP is afraid of losing the elections and hence he was arrested to prevent him from going to Himachal. He will be released soon as he has been arrested in a fake case," Sisodia added.

The ED had said last month that assets worth Rs 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.

The minister was taken into custody under criminal sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), officials said.

Jain, 57, is the minister for health, industries, power, home, urban development and water in the Arvind Kejriwal-led government.

The Himachal Pradesh assembly polls are slated for later this year and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is looking to make inroads into the state after its stupendous victory in Punjab earlier this year.