In a blow to Bharatiya Janata Party’s campaign against Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), former Delhi minister Satyendra Jain was acquitted by a court of charges of corruption on Monday. The Rouse Avenue Court in Delhi dismissed the case, originally filed in 2019, against Jain after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) filed its closure report where no evidence of wrongdoing was found against Jain.
Special Judge Dig Vinay Singh pronounced the order, stating:
“No material exists to suggest any criminal intent or conspiracy. The law requires more than mere suspicion to justify charges and such proof is completely absent here.”
Jain, who held the PWD portfolio in the AAP government before his arrest, was accused of improper conduct in the appointment of a 17-person creative team for a project of his department in 2016. He was accused of both wrongful conduct and illicit financial gain from the recruitment.
Satyendra Jain was one of many AAP leaders who went to jail on charges of corruption. This formed one of the key planks of the BJP’s attacks on the Arvind Kejriwal-led party both during the Delhi election campaign and in general.
However, the dismissal of the case and the complete failure of the CBI to find any evidence of wrongdoing discredits the BJP’s claim of being a crusader against the corruption of opposition parties.
It is worth remembering that the 2014 Lok Sabha election campaign was also dominated by the discourse of several scams that beset the UPA government and the BJP rode to power promising action against the accused and accountable governance.
While the latter has materialized, the scams of the UPA have been all but forgotten and the accused seem to be completely off the hook.
Not to forget, Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren had also been accused of corruption and arrested by the agencies last year. However, Soren too was fully acquitted and regained his post as the Chief Minister of Jharkhand after his party won the Vidhan Sabha election last year.
The acquittal of Jain has given further ammunition to the charges of a witch-hunt through central investigating agencies levelled by the opposition against the ruling party. AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal put out a post on X claiming that with time, other cases against his party’s leaders will also prove to be false.