Delhi Court Sends Satyendar Jain, Four Others To 14-day Judicial Custody In DJB Tender Case

A Delhi court on Wednesday sent former minister Satyendar Jain, ex-Delhi Jal Board CEO Udit Prakash Rai and three others in the alleged corruption case involving the tendering process for sewage treatment plant projects of the DJB to 14-day judicial custody.

Special Judge Dig Vinay Singh also sent Ankit Srivastava, a former contractual consultant with the DJB, to two days of police custody.

The court also issued notice to the Anti-Corruption Branch (ACB) on a bail plea of Jain, which was moved by his counsel on Wednesday. Jain, Rai, Srivastava, and three others were arrested by the ACB in connection with the case on Tuesday night.

A reasoned order is awaited. Other accused in the case are private persons Nagendra Yadav, Raja Kumar Kurra and Pankaj Verma.

The case was registered in May 2024, on a complaint by the Directorate of Vigilance, over alleged large-scale irregularities, manipulation of tender conditions and criminal conspiracy in the tendering process related to augmentation and upgradation of sewage treatment plants of the DJB.

BJP Alleges STP Scam

Earlier, Delhi BJP president Harsh Malhotra targeted the previous AAP administration over the alleged financial irregularities. He said the failure to set up sewage treatment plants worsened pollution in the Yamuna.

"The STP scam and the arrests made in connection with it have made it clear why not a single STP was installed on any drain during the 10-year rule of the Kejriwal government and why the Yamuna became even more polluted over those ten years," Malhotra said, as reported by PTI. He demanded that Kejriwal accept the offences committed by his government.

Malhotra said investigators have established a clear money trail of embezzlement. The misappropriated funds were distributed among the former minister, officials and contractors, PTI reported.

AAP Cries Political Vendetta

AAP leaders dismissed the charges as a calculated political move. Leader of Opposition in the Delhi Assembly Atishi condemned the arrests. "In the arrogance of power, the BJP may have forgotten that there is a limit to lies and oppression... the truth cannot be suppressed forever," Atishi said, as reported by PTI.

Senior leaders Manish Sisodia and Sanjay Singh linked the timing to the upcoming Punjab elections. Both pointed out that Jain is the Punjab election co-in-charge, PTI reported. Sisodia said Jain had previously spent two-and-a-half years in jail in a fake case.

AAP national spokesperson Anurag Dhanda said there is a timeline discrepancy in the charges. The sewage treatment plant tender was issued in October 2022, while Jain had already been in jail since May 2022 in a prior case, Dhanda said, as reported by PTI.