In a significant development, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs on Friday requested President Murmu to grant prosecution sanction for initiating legal proceedings against Satyendra Kumar Jain, AAP leader and former minister of the Delhi government, under Section 218 of the Bharatiya Nagrik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023. Sources told news agency ANI that based on the material received from the Enforcement Directorate, sufficient evidence has been found to prosecute Satyendra Kumar Jain in this case.
The Ministry of Home Affairs has in March last year accorded sanction for a Central Bureau of Investigation inquiry against jailed Aam Aadmi Party leader Satyendar Jain, under the Prevention of Corruption (POC) Act, for allegedly extorting Rs 10 crore from notorious conman Sukash Chandrashekhar, who was then lodged in Tihar Jail.
In February this year, Delhi LG VK Saxena sent the proposal of the CBI to the Home Ministry for approval to prosecute and investigate Jain under Section 17A of the PoC Act.
On March 22, the Home Ministry accorded the sanction for the CBI inquiry against Jain and subsequently, LG Saxena forwarded the same to the Delhi Chief Secretary for further appropriate action.
Jain, who was then the jail minister in the Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP government, currently in jail over money laundering charges, is also accused of running a high profile extortion racket from Tihar Jail and demanding Rs 10 crore as “protection money” from Chandrashekhar, so as to enable him to “live peacefully and comfortably in jail.”
On Chandrashekhar’s complaint, the CBI had begun inquiring into the matter and accordingly, the agency sought the approval of the competent authority for prosecuting Jain under the PoC Act.
The case pertains to the charges made by Sukash Chandrashekhar that Jain had extorted and received Rs 10 crore from him in various tranches during 2018-21, either personally or through his accomplices, as protection money, so as to enable him ‘to live peacefully and comfortably in different jails of Delhi (Tihar, Rohini and Mandoli)’.