NEW DELHI: Besides arrested Delhi Minister and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Satyendar Jain, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has got several leads about three more people linked to the hawala transaction case, officials said on Monday.
A senior ED official related to the probe told The New Indian, “The ED has got the leads against Gurmeet Singh Matharu, who is the chairperson of the Prudence School based in Delhi’s Dwarka and Sunil Jain and Ajit Kumar Jain.”
He said that besides the premises of the Jain, the ED carried out searches at the residential and office premises of Matharu in Dwarka. The official said that Matharu is also associated with the Lal Sher Singh Memorial Trust and Jeevan Vigyan Society.
He said that the searches at the premises of Matharu were carried out after the ED got fresh leads in connection with the hawala transaction case.
The official further said that besides Matharu, the ED teams conducted searches at the premises of Ajit Kumar Jain, father of Vaibhav Jain and Sunil Jain, father of Ankush Jain.
The official also said that the agency sleuths also carried out searches at the premises of Ram Prasad Jewellers in Delhi.
He said that the agency has got the leads about the hawala entries by Naveen Jain, Siddharth Jain and Yogesh Kumar Jain associated with Ram Prasad jewellers.
The ED arrested Jain on May 30 in connection with hawala transactions with the Kolkata based shell companies.
A Delhi court has sent Jain to ED custody till June 9. The Delhi government allocated the portfolios of Jain to Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on June 3.
The ED case of money laundering against the AAP minister is based on a CBI FIR registered against Jain in August 2017 on charges of alleged possession of disproportionate assets.
In 2018, ED questioned the AAP MLA in connection with the case. The financial probe agency, in April this year, has attached properties worth Rs 4.81 crore of the family and companies “beneficially owned and controlled” by Jain in connection with a money-laundering probe.
In a statement, the ED said it has issued a provisional order under the PMLA for the attachment of the assets.
The “attached immovable properties worth Rs 4.81 crore belong to Akinchan Developers Pvt Ltd, Indo Metal Impex Pvt Ltd, Paryas Infosolutions Pvt Ltd, Manglayatan Projects Pvt Ltd, JJ Ideal Estate Pvt Ltd, Swati Jain, wife of Vaibhav Jain, Sushila Jain, wife of Ajit Prasad Jain, and Indu Jain, wife of Sunil Jain.”
The probe found that “during the period 2015-16, when Jain was a public servant, the companies beneficially owned and controlled by him received accommodation entries to the tune of Rs 4.81 crore from shell companies against cash transferred to Kolkata-based entry operators through the hawala route”.
“These amounts were utilised for direct purchase of land or for repayment of loan taken for the purchase of agricultural land in and around Delhi,” the ED had mentioned.
Following the arrest of Jain, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal slammed the central government for misusing central agencies.