Defending Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain, who has been arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in a money laundering case, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday said all the charges levelled against Jain are ” completely fake” adding that the Delhi Health Minister’s arrest is ”politically motivated”.

Kejriwal said, “It is a fraud case against Satyendar Jain. I myself saw his papers, the allegations against him are fraud. He has been arrested in view of politics.”

“This is a fake case. We have an absolutely honest government and a very honest party. We neither do nor tolerate the corruption of even a single penny,” the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national convenor said.

Making a reference to the removal of Punjab Health Minister Vijay Singla on corruption charges, the Delhi Chief Minister said, “Recently you saw in Punjab, that there was just audio of a Minister and no agency, opposition or media knew about it. If we wanted, we could have saved him, but we removed him.”

Defending the Delhi Health Minister and accusing the central probe agencies of falsely implicating the Minister, Kejriwal said, “Similarly, five years ago, I had also removed a Minister in Delhi. We don’t wait for agencies to take action. However, agencies also act in the wrong ways. But the actions that have been taken by central agencies are politically motivated. Satyendar Jain is being pushed into the case. This false case won’t last. I would have taken action if this case had anything, but it has nothing in it.”

A local court in the national capital on Tuesday remanded Delhi Health and Home Minister Satyendar Jain to the Enforcement Directorate (ED) custody till June 9 in an alleged money laundering case.

ED on Monday had arrested Satyendar Jain from his residence in connection with alleged hawala transactions related to a Kolkata-based company. The Rouse Avenue Court remanded Jain to ED custody till June 9.

Apart from Home and Health, Jain holds portfolios of Power, PWD, Industries, Urban Development, and Flood and Irrigation and Water in the Aam Aadmi Party-led Delhi government.

The ED had in April this year attached immovable properties worth Rs 4.81 crore owned by companies named Akinchan Developers Pvt Ltd, Indo Metal Impex Pvt Ltd, and others under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 in connection with the disproportionate asset and money laundering case registered Jain, his wife Poonam Jain, and others.

On August 25, 2017, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) filed an FIR against Jain in a money laundering case.

The ED had registered a criminal case against the AAP leader based on this FIR in which it had been alleged that Jain could not explain the source of funds received by four companies in which he was a shareholder.

Jain had reportedly floated or bought several shell companies in Delhi. He also allegedly laundered black money worth Rs 16.39 crore through 54 shell companies of three hawala operators of Kolkata.

Jain allegedly owned a large number of shares in companies named Prayas, Indo, and Akinchan. However, after becoming Minister in Kejriwal’s government, all his shares were transferred to his wife in 2015, as per reports.

These companies used to transfer cash payments to their Kolkata counterparts and these companies would later, under the ruse of buying shares, “route back the money” to Jain by employing legal means. The companies have reportedly laundered money to the tune of Rs 16.39 crore from 2010 to 2014 to Satyendra Jain.

As per government sources, when prosecuted by the I-T Department, Jain surrendered black money in form of cash of Rs 16.39 crore under Income Disclosure Scheme (IDS) 2016 on benami names of Vaibhav Jain and Ankush Jain.

In November 2019, the Home Ministry approved the prosecution of Jain in cases related to disproportionate assets and money laundering.