NEW DELHI: President Droupadi Murmu on Tuesday sanctioned the prosecution aginst former minister Satyendar Jain in a case investigated by the Enforcement Directorate.
The case falls under the provisions of the Prevention of Money laundering Act (PMLA), sources said.
It is to be noted that the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) sent a file to the Rashtrapati Bhawan seeking prosecution sanction against the AAP leader.
Jain was arrested in May 2022, under Section 218 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS).
At the time of the arrest, Jain held portfolios including health and power in the Delhi government.
In its note to the President, the MHA had claimed to have sufficient evidence against Jain in the case based on the materials received from the ED.
The ED’s case against Jain under provisions of the PMA is based on an FIR registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which alleged that the AAP leader was linked to laundering money through ‘hawala channels’.
The agency also accused him of transferring the money to Kolkata via a hawala channel and receiving it back through dummy companies as accommodation entries, despite being unable to explain the source of the funds.
On October 18 last year, a special city court granted Jain bail in the money laundering case after he spent 18 months in jail, ruling that there was “no likelihood” of the trial starting, “let alone being completed”.
However, the ED in its earlier investigation had found that during 2015-16, Jain and four companies (beneficially owned and controlled by him) received accommodation entries (hawala) amounting to Rs 4.81 crore from shell (bogus) companies in exchange for cash transferred to Kolkata-based entry operators through the hawala route.
The agency had further alleged: “These amounts were utilised for the direct purchase of agricultural land or for the repayment of a loan taken for the purchase of agricultural land in and around Delhi.”