President Droupadi Murmu has granted sanction to the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to prosecute former Delhi health minister and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Satyender Jain in a money laundering case related to disproportionate assets, sources said.

The development came days after the Union Ministry of Home Affairs sought the President’s sanction to prosecute Mr Jain, who was arrested in May 2022 and was in custody for approximately 18 months, before he was released on bail in October 2024. 

Mr Jain is accused of laundering money through four companies linked to him. He was arrested, along with two others, by ED on May 30, 2022 under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

The arrests were made on the basis of a First Information Report (FIR) registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) against the AAP leader in 2017 under the Prevention of Corruption Act.

ED had earlier provisionally attached assets worth Rs 4.81 crore of Mr Jain’s family and companies “beneficially owned and controlled” by him as part of a money laundering probe against him.

The former Delhi minister was granted bail on October 18, 2024 by a Delhi court.