Satyendar held as BJP fears losing elections: Sisodia
New Delhi, May 30: Delhi minister Satyendar Jain has been arrested by the ED in an eight-yearold “fake” case as he is the AAP’s incharge for the Himachal Pradesh polls and the BJP is afraid of losing the electoral contest, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said on Monday.
Jain was taken into custody under criminal sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) after a few hours of questioning on Monday, Enforcement Directorate (ED) officials said.
“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 calling him because he is the (AAP) incharge of the Himachal Pradesh polls,” Sisodia said in a tweet in Hindi.
“The BJP is afraid of losing the election 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,” the Delhi deputy chief minister added.
Jain (57) is the minister for health, industries, power, home, urban development and water in the Arvind Kejriwalled government.
Later, at a press conference here, senior Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Sanjay Singh said Jain was earlier summoned by the ED seven times but was never arrested. He has been arrested now to “defame” the AAP ahead of the Himachal Pradesh Assembly polls, Singh alleged.
The BJP government has alleged that Jain was involved in “hawala” work through certain companies between 2015 and 2017.
Singh claimed that the people who were the owners of these companies during 2015-2017 have confessed to their crimes in a court and clearly submitted that all the money belongs to them, and the court has also accepted this point.
“The ED summoned Satyendar Jain seven times in 2018 but could not find anything against him. The ED took no action from 2019 till now and the case appeared to be closed. Now the case has been reopened before the Himachal election”, he said. —