Senior AAP leader and former PWD Minister Satyendar Jain being greeted by party colleagues after being released from jail, where he was lodged in a money laundering case.
| Photo Credit: file photo

The Delhi government’s Anti-Corruption Branch (ACB) has registered a case against former Delhi Minister and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Satyendar Jain over corruption allegations in a ₹571-crore CCTV project.

Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) Delhi unit chief Virendra Sachdeva welcomed the development while Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) chief spokesperson Priyanka Kakkar accused the ruling party of “misusing the probe agencies”.

The ACB chief, Joint Commissioner of Police Madhur Verma, said in a statement, “The FIR was registered on Tuesday after obtaining sanction under Section 17A of the Prevention of Corruption Act from the competent authority [Lieutenant-Governor V.K. Saxena].”

“Jain is accused of arbitrarily waiving damages worth ₹16 crore imposed on Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) for delays in installing CCTV cameras across Delhi. The waiver was allegedly granted upon [Mr. Jain] receiving a bribe of ₹7 crore,” the officer added.

The case stems from a complaint filed by an employee of BEL in September 2019. The employee had alleged that Mr. Jain, who was then the Public Works Department Minister and the nodal officer for the CCTV project, had sought ₹7 crore bribe to waive the ₹16 crore fine imposed by the Delhi government in the previous month for delays in installing 1.4 lakh CCTVs across the city. The employee had alleged that the firm had paid the bribe by raising the money through its vendors.

‘Inflated orders’

“The complaint alleged that in addition to waiving the penalties, additional orders for 1.4 lakh more CCTV cameras were awarded to BEL. The bribe was allegedly routed through contractors who received the additional orders. Payments were reportedly made by inflating vendor order values,” read the ACB chief’s statement.

The FIR has been registered under Sections 7 (offence related to public servant being bribed) and 13(1)(a) (criminal misconduct by a public servant) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, along with Section 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the IPC, he added.

Mr. Verma said their probe revealed that several cameras installed by BEL were dysfunctional, and the project had been executed haphazardly.

Political reactions

The Delhi BJP chief said the action against Mr. Jain “is just the beginning” and that “many more corruption cases of the previous AAP government will soon come to light”.

Rebutting the ACB allegations, Ms. Kakkar said, “The probe agencies have so far failed to produce a shred of evidence against AAP. The BJP is misusing probe agencies to settle political scores while ignoring those who have looted public money and fled the country.”

The former PWD Minister was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate in a money-laundering case in May 2022. He was granted bail and stepped out of Tihar Jail in October last year.