DELHI LT GOVERNOR SANCTIONS CBI PROBE AGAINST JAILED AAP LEADER IN EXTORTION CASE
Delhi Lieutenant Governor (LG) Vinai Kumar Saxena on Saturday gave sanction to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to conduct an inquiry under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) against jailed Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Satyendar Jain for his alleged involvement in an extortion racket.Â
The probe agency has accused Jain of receiving protection money from several "high profile prisoners", including conman Sukesh Chandrasekhar, in exchange for enabling them to live peacefully and comfortably in jail.
Jain held several key portfolios in the Delhi Cabinet, including health, home and Public Works Department (PWD), and was arrested in May 2022 in a money laundering case. The former Delhi minister allegedly extorted Rs 10 crore from Chandrasekhar as 'protection money', CBI has said.
"A high-level corruption and extortion racket was flourishing in the Delhi jails in connivance with the then DG Prison Sandeep Goel and then Additional Inspector General of Prisons Mukesh Prasad along with associate officers, private persons and accomplices," the CBI had charged in its letter seeking permission to launch the investigation into the matter.
Jain is currently out on interim bail, granted to him on medical grounds. The CBI had on November 10 written to LG seeking his approval for conducting the inquiry against Jain and other jail officials in two separate letters.
Meanwhile, AAP had called the probe agency's action a mockery of the law.Â
"The CBI has sought LG's permission for conducting inquiry against Satyendar Jain and others based only on the statement of Sukesh Chandrasekhar. This is nothing but a mockery of the law. AAP categorically denies any association, communication, let alone any money transaction between Jain and Sukesh Chandrasekhar or any of his associates," an AAP official had said.
Chandrasekhar, who was arrested on charge of alleged financial fraud, filed a complaint with the Delhi Lt Governor alleging that he had paid Rs 10 crore to Jain in installments for his safety in Delhi prisons.Â
2024-03-02T10:49:34Z dg43tfdfdgfd