"Was In Jail When Tender Floated": Satyendar Jain To Court After Arrest In Corruption Case

Satyendar Jain, former Delhi minister of the Aam Aadmi Party arrested in connection with alleged irregularities in Jal Board tenders, told a court today that the tender in question was floated in December 2022 -- long after he was relieved of the portfolio. 

He said he was in jail at the time and was not in charge of any ministry though he was technically a minister. He was relieved of the portfolio after he was arrested on May 30, 2022, by the Enforcement Directorate in connection with a money laundering case. He had spent nearly 22 months in jail. 

Arrested again in connection with the Jal Board tender case yesterday and remanded in judicial custody along with the other accused, Jain told the court today that the Rs 1,546-crore tender did not appear to be correct, but the one for Rs 1,938-crore appeared to be valid.

Read: Case Will Be Proven Fake, Says Arvind Kejriwal

If the capacity of an existing Sewage Treatment Plant is increased by 1.5 to 2 times, the cost will be roughly half of what would be required to set up a new plant, and the work could be completed in about a year.

After obtaining in-principle approval and several rounds of discussions, it was decided to upgrade and expand the existing STPs.

The objective was to improve the existing STPs because cleaning the Yamuna was a political commitment to the public. The target was to clean the river before the next election.

Read: AAP's Satyendar Jain's 'Punjab Polls' Claim Over His Arrest In Corruption Case

Initially, a target of 300 MGD was set, with an estimated cost of Rs 1,546 crore. Tenders were floated in four packages at approximately Rs 5 crore per MGD. But the file for this work did not come to him and he had to quit the portfolio soon after following his arrest.

The Anti-Corruption Branch, which arrested Jain, said the tender was manipulated and changes were made to its terms and conditions. Moreover, it was only uploaded only on the Delhi Jal Board website, instead of being published in newspapers.

Also money laundering and banking transactions worth around Rs 5 crore were carried out at the time, the Central agency said.

Jain, along with five other accused, including ex-Delhi Jal Board CEO Udit Prakash Rai, was produced in court earlier today. The former minister has claimed that his arrest is politically motivated. Jain has been made AAP's in-charge for the Punjab election which is due in 2027.

His lawyer N Hariharan has claimed that the arrest was "made against the law". 

"The ACB did not provide any grounds for arrest to the accused. The Enforcement Department filed a chargesheet in this case, but no arrests were made. The ACB also called for questioning in this case and arrested him," he said.