The Central Bureau of Investigations officials today raided the residence of Health, PWD and Power minister of Delhi Satyendra Jain. According to reports, the raid is in connection with alleged irregularities in the hiring of a creative team by the PWD department. Various locations related to the ministers were reportedly raided by CBI officials.
https://twitter.com/ANI/status/1001690228657188865?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
The CBI has also filed an FIR against the Minister. According to reports, the PWD department under Jain had allegedly hired 24 architects through a detective agency. The detective agency reportedly had no prior experience in the field and was tasked to hire the said architects for the department. CBI had earlier initiated an inquiry against the irregularities in the hiring. The creative wing was formed in 2015 and it is also reported that the hiring of the said individuals was not sanctioned as required by the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi.
Satyendra Jain has reacted to the CBI raid stating professionals were hired for different projects and all were dismissed by the CBI.
https://twitter.com/SatyendarJain/status/1001655263353589762?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Earlier, there were reports of AAP using its Anti Corruption Unit to spy on officials and journalists. One wonders why Satyendar Jain felt the need to hire architects from a detective agency.
Satyendra Jain’s house was also visited by CBI officials for inquiry in 2017 in relation to a money laundering case in 2017. His residence was raided by CBI pertaining to money Laundering cases in August 2017. In August 2017, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) had also filed a case against him for alleged money laundering.
Violation of norms and irregularities in hiring professionals has since long haunting AAP. Earlier this month, the LG of Delhi had declared AAP’s hiring of 14 lawyers to fight their cases as ‘invalid’. The lawyers included prominent Supreme Court lawyers like Indira Jaising and Anand Grover. The PWD department of AAP is already embroiled in an alleged 10 crore PWD scam. Anti- Corruption Bureau officials had arrested Arvind Kejriwal’s nephew Vinay Bansal earlier this month.