Delhi's ACB arrested Satyendar Jain and five others over sewage-plant tenders

Delhi's Anti-Corruption Branch arrested Satyendar Jain on Tuesday, along with former Delhi Jal Board CEO Udit Prakash Rai and four others. Jain is a senior Aam Aadmi Party leader, a former water minister in the Kejriwal government, and the party's co-in-charge for Punjab.

The ACB says the case is about tenders to upgrade sewage treatment plants. Investigators allege the conditions were written to favour one Hyderabad firm, Euroteck Environment, by locking in restrictive specifications, skipping a proposed pilot study, and leaving out essential parameters for treated effluent. Joint commissioner Vikramjit Singh said those changes had "significant financial implications for the government exchequer."

The ACB also arrested Ankit Srivastava, a former DJB consultant whom agency sources called an adviser to Jain when he was minister; Nagendra Yadav of AN Enterprises; Raja Kumar Kurra, Euroteck's owner; and Pankaj Verma of Srijanhar. The ACB says Rai received Rs 1.52 crore in his and his relatives' accounts, routed through AN Enterprises from Euroteck, and used it to buy property. The Enforcement Directorate had already told vigilance it found irregularities covering at least ten plants, worth more than Rs 1,900 crore.

Jain has done this once. The ED arrested him on 31 May 2022. He spent about a year and a half in Tihar and got bail on 18 October 2024. Arvind Kejriwal posted that the BJP had him arrested again, that the earlier case was fabricated, and that this one "will also be proven to be fake."

Sewage plants are where a lot of public money sits with very little glamour attached. If the ACB's account holds, the alleged fraud is the tender document being bent until only one vendor can win.

I would still wait for charges to be framed. Jain has been through this movie, and Kejriwal is already calling it dictatorship. That does not make the paperwork disappear. The ED is on the same set of names, and it has alleged a Rs 6.73 crore bribe and Rs 9.96 crore of undue profit for Euroteck.

The ACB is still tracing the money and Jain's role in the tendering. Remand will tell you how long they want him. Punjab votes early next year, and Jain is the party's man there, so this will not stay a Jal Board story for long.