New Delhi: Former Delhi minister and senior Aam Aadmi Party leader Satyendar Jain, who was arrested by the Anti-Corruption Branch in connection with alleged irregularities in the Delhi Jal Board tendering process, claimed on Wednesday that his arrest was politically motivated and tied to the upcoming Punjab Assembly elections. Jain stated that the enforcement action was executed specifically to disrupt the party’s election preparations in Punjab, where he serves as co-in-charge.
According to reports, the arrest stems from a First Information Report registered by the anti-corruption agency in May 2024 concerning alleged large-scale irregularities, manipulation of tender specifications, and criminal conspiracy in contracts aimed at upgrading sewage treatment plants across Delhi. Alongside Jain, authorities presented five other accused individuals—including former Delhi Jal Board chief executive officer Udit Prakash Rai, former consultant Ankit Srivastava, and private contractors Nagendra Yadav, Raja Kumar Kurra, and Pankaj Verma—before the Rouse Avenue Court in New Delhi.
Ahead of the court proceedings, Senior Advocate Maninder Singh, representing Jain, argued that established Supreme Court guidelines concerning arrest procedures had been disregarded and that formal grounds for the detention were missing. The charges against the accused invoke multiple sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act alongside provisions of the Indian Penal Code related to criminal breach of trust, cheating, and criminal conspiracy.
The Aam Aadmi Party strongly condemned the move, with Leader of the Opposition in the Delhi Assembly Atishi describing the action as a political witch-hunt orchestrated by the Bharatiya Janata Party. Drawing comparisons to Jain’s previous detention during the Himachal Pradesh campaign period, party leaders asserted that the case was revived to hinder the party’s organisational momentum ahead of the Punjab legislative assembly elections.
