The Union home ministry has written to the President seeking approval to prosecute AAP leader and former Delhi minister Satyendar Jain in a money-laundering case linked to the excise case being investigated by the ED, sources said on Friday.
The sanction against the 60-year-old politician has been sought under Section 218 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita. Under the BNSS, the President's permission is needed to prosecute public servants for offences committed during the discharge of official duties.
The ministry has requested the President to grant prosecution sanction for initiating legal proceedings against Jain, saying the ED investigation had revealed the presence of "adequate proof" against him.
The agency had earlier booked Jain in the case linked to alleged hawala dealings and arrested him in May 2022. Jain held the health, power and a few other portfolios when he was taken into ED custody.
He is currently out on bail and has been chargesheeted by the agency.
The money-laundering case stems from an August 2017 FIR filed against Jain and others by the CBI on charges of possession of assets disproportionate to their known sources of income.
The CBI had filed a chargesheet in December 2018 stating that the alleged disproportionate assets were to the tune of ₹1.47 crore, about 217 per cent more than Jain’s known sources of income during 2015-17.
The ED had earlier said its probe found that "during 2015-16, Satyendar Jain was a public servant and four companies (beneficially owned and controlled by him) received accommodation entries (hawala) to the tune of ₹4.81 crore from shell (bogus) companies against cash transferred to Calcutta-based entry operators through the hawala route”.
The agency has alleged that those amounts were utilised for direct purchase of agriculture land or for the repayment of loans taken for the purchase of agriculture land in and around Delhi.
AAP convenor and former Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal had earlier defended Jain, saying he was a “hardcore honest and patriotic” person who was being framed in a “false case”.