New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) announced on Tuesday that it has provisionally attached assets valued at ₹7.44 crore belonging to companies “owned and controlled” by Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader and former Delhi minister Satyendar Jain. The action was taken under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) as part of the agency’s ongoing investigation.
This is the second major attachment in the case. The ED’s money laundering probe stems from a 2017 Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) case that accused Satyendar Jain of amassing disproportionate assets while serving as a minister in the Delhi government between February 2015 and May 2017. In March 2022, the ED had previously attached assets worth ₹4.81 crore in the same case. With this latest action, the total value of attached properties in the case now amounts to ₹12.25 crore.
According to the ED, the new attachment is related to a cash deposit of ₹7.44 crore made by Jain’s associates, Ankush Jain and Vaibhav Jain, soon after demonetization in November 2016. These funds were declared as advance tax under the Income Disclosure Scheme (IDS). The ED alleges that the four companies in which these assets were declared were beneficially owned and controlled by Satyendar Jain himself. Both the Income Tax Department and the Delhi High Court had previously held these associates as benami (proxy) holders for Jain, a finding that was upheld by the Supreme Court.
Satyendar Jain, who was granted bail in October 2024 after being in judicial custody for 18 months, has consistently maintained that the cases against him are politically motivated. The AAP has also defended him, calling the charges baseless.