President Approves Probe Against Manish Sisodia and Satyendar Jain

President Droupadi Murmu authorized the Anti-Corruption Bureau of Delhi on Thursday to undertake a probe against Manish Sisodia and Satyendra Jain with regard to corruption in the construction of school rooms/buildings by the Delhi government under Section 17A of the Prevention of Corruption Act.

Sisodia was the education minister and Jain was the PWD minister of Delhi.

The Centre inserted Section 17A in the Prevention of Corruption Act by way of an amendment in July 2018, making it mandatory for a police, CBI, or any other agency dealing with corruption offences to take prior approval before conducting any "enquiry" or "inquiry" or "investigation" into any offences of corruption-related nature.

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The Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) in its report dated February 17, 2020, had brought out "glaring irregularities" in the construction of more than 2,400 classrooms in Delhi government schools by the Public Works Department (PWD).

As per a report by PTI, the vigilance directorate of the Delhi government had recommended a probe into the alleged scam in 2022 and filed a report with the chief secretary.

As per reports by PTI, the sanction to prosecute Jain in antimoney laundering case being investigated by the Enforcement Directorate was granted by President Droupadi Murmu, on February 18.

The sanction against the 60-year-old former Delhi health minister was sought under section 218 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita.

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The sanction to prosecute Jain was sought from the President by the Ministry of Home Affairs after an investigation by the Enforcement Directorate and having extant "adequate proof".

The CBI filed a chargesheet in December 2018, stating that the alleged disproportionate assets were to the tune of ₹1.47 crore, about 217 per cent more than Jain's known sources of income during 2015-17.

The ED had earlier said its probe found that "during 2015-16, Satyendar Jain was a public servant and four companies (beneficially owned and controlled by him) received accommodation entries (hawala) to the tune of ₹4.81 crore from shell (bogus) companies against cash transferred to Kolkata-based entry operators through the hawala route".

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