Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain has been arrested on Monday by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in an alleged money laundering case.
The financial probe agency alleged that the minister in the Arvind Kejriwal government was involved in hawala transactions with a Kolkata-based firm in 2015-16.
The agency had said last month that assets worth Rs 4.81 crore of Jain's family and companies "beneficially owned and controlled" by him were provisionally attached as part of a money laundering probe against him.
Meanwhile, Delhi's Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said Jain has been arrested because he is the election in-charge of Himachal Pradesh and that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is losing badly in the state.
"A fake case is being run against Satyendra Jain for 8 years. Till now ED has been called many times. In between, ED stopped calling for many years as they did not get anything. Now started again because Satyendra Jain is the election in-charge of Himachal (sic)," Sisodia wrote.
"BJP is losing badly in Himachal. That is why Satyendra Jain has been arrested today so that he cannot go to Himachal. He will be released in a few days as the case is completely fake (sic)," he added.
In January this year, Kejriwal had said that the party has intelligence information that the ED is planning to arrest Jain ahead of the Punjab Assembly Elections.
"We got the information from our sources that in the coming few days, before the Punjab election, the ED is coming to arrest Satyendar Jain. Centre had raided Jain twice before and found nothing. Now if they want to come again, they are welcome. Because it is the election season and when the BJP sees it is losing, they deploy all central agencies. So it is evident that there will be raids, arrests will be made," Kejriwal had said.
"We are not scared because we are on the path of the truth and these obstacles are bound to come. Please send all other agencies like income tax, CBI, Delhi Police etc. We have all been raided before. 21 MLAs have been arrested in past. In this case too, maximum Satyendar Jain will be arrested and then will get bail in a few days. We are not scared to be arrested," the Delhi CM had said.
After Kejriwal said that sources had apprised that the ED will arrest Jain in the coming days, the Delhi Health Minister then took a veiled jibe at the Centre and said that it is "politics" being done ahead of Assembly polls.
"They are welcome to come whenever they want. Even before this, they have raided me twice but all went into vain. This is all politics and last time they did it during the Punjab elections also. ED, CBI all are welcome. I am ready, if they want to arrest me, they can arrest me," he had said.
