A trial court sent Delhi minister Satyendar Jain to Enforcement Directorate's (ED) custody till June 9 in connection with a money laundering case on Tuesday. The court issued the order a day after Jain was arrested for allegedly being involved in hawala dealings.

During the court hearing on Tuesday, the ED sought Jain's custody for 14 days. The agency told the Delhi court that Jain was evasive during questioning.

"He gave answers contrary to collect evidence," the ED said, saying it is likely the evidence in the case might be tampered with till "we trace the full trail of money".

However, the court has now been sent Jain to ED custody till June 9.

On Monday, Jain was arrested under criminal sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) after a few hours of questioning, ED officials said.

Last month, the ED said 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.

Reacting to the news, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said, "I have personally studied this (Satyendar Jain's arrest by ED) case, it is completely fraud. We neither tolerate corruption nor we do corruption. We have a very honest government. He has been targeted because of political reasons. We have faith in our judiciary."

Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia also called the money laundering case against Jain "fake". He said, "A fake case has been going on against Satyendar Jain for eight years. He has been called by the ED several times so far."

"The ED had stopped calling him for some time because it did not find anything against him. Now, it has again started calling him because he is the (AAP) incharge of the Himachal Pradesh polls," Sisodia said.

सत्येंद्र जैन के ख़िलाफ़ 8 साल से एक फ़र्ज़ी केस चलाया जा रहा है. अभी तक कई बार ED बुला चुकी है। बीच में कई साल ED ने बुलाना भी बंद कर दिया था क्योंकि उन्हें कुछ मिला ही नहीं। अब फिर शुरू कर दिया क्योंकि सत्येंद्र जैन हिमाचल के इलेक्शन इंचार्ज हैं।1/2

— Manish Sisodia (@msisodia) May 30, 2022Claiming that "the BJP is afraid of losing the election", Sisodia said Jain "was arrested to prevent him from going to Himachal. He will be released soon as he has been arrested in a fake case."

Meanwhile, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Manoj Tiwari hit out at the AAP and said, "You are teaching honesty to all but AAP ministers are hawala businessmen.

Jain is the minister for health, industries, power, home, urban development and water in the Arvind Kejriwal-led government. Earlier, the BJP had alleged that Jain was involved in "hawala" work through certain companies between 2015 and 2017.

(Edited by : Akriti Anand)

First Published:May 31, 2022 4:05 PM IST