NEW DELHI: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on July 3 questioned and recorded the statement of former Delhi Minister and AAP leader Satyendar Jain under provisions of PMLA as a part of its probe into the case linked to alleged corruption in the augmentation of a few sewage treatment plants by the Delhi Jal Board (DJB).
According to the officials, Satyendar Jain reached the ED office in Delhi around 11.15 am. This is the third case against Jain, which the ED has been probing under provisions of the PMLA.
Jain had held portfolios like Health, Industries, Power, Public Works Department, Home and Urban Development under the AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal-led Delhi government.
It is to be noted that the AAP leader was arrested by the ED in 2022 and later named in the charge sheet filed in a local special court in connection with alleged hawala transactions and possession of disproportionate assets case.
Recently, the ED booked him in an alleged classroom construction scam case along with former Delhi deputy CM and AAP leader Manish Sisodia.
The investigation in the latest case pertains to allegations of corruption in the augmentation of a few sewage treatment plants by the Delhi Jal Board, following an FIR registered by the Delhi government anti-corruption branch (ACB). The ED had conducted searches in this case in July last year.
The ACB has registered the FIR against a Hyderabad-based company named Euroteck Environmental Pvt Ltd. and others, alleging a scam in the DJB in the name of augmentation and upgradation of 10 Sewage Treatment Plants (STPs) at Pappankala, Nilothi, Najafgarh, Keshopur, Coronation Pillar, Narela, Rohini and Kondli.
In the FIR, ACB has said only three JV companies participated in the four tenders issued in October 2022, with a value of Rs 1,943 crore. It said, as per the ED, the tendering conditions were made “restrictive” including the adoption of IFAS (Integrated Fixed-film Activated Sludge) technology to ensure that a select few entities could participate in the four tenders.
The verification of the tender documents shows that the initial cost of four tenders was about Rs 1,546 crore, which was revised to Rs 1,943 crore without following due process/project reports, the ED alleged after it probes into the case.
The contracts were awarded to three JVs at “inflated” rates, which caused alleged “substantive” loss to the exchequer and all the JVs sub-contracted the work related to the four tenders to the Hyderabad firm, it noted.