The Delhi government’s Home Department on Friday transferred Director General (Prisons) Sandeep Goel from Tihar Jail, nearly a month after conman Sukesh Chandrashekhar alleged that he had paid money to Aam Aadmi Party for protection in jail, PTI reported.
The development comes days after the Enforcement Directorate told a Delhi court that state minister Satyendar Jain was getting special treatment in jail. The central agency claimed that he was regularly meeting co-accused persons, and that he was getting home-cooked food and body massages in jail, according to India Today.
Goel has been asked to report to police headquarters for further orders. Sanjay Beniwal, a 1989 batch Indian Police Service officer, was appointed as the new head of the prison.
“I am fortunate that the government has chosen me for such a difficult role,” Beniwal told ANI. “It is challenging but every post is challenging.”
In a letter to Delhi’s Lieutenant Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena on October 7, Chandrashekhar had made a series of allegations against the Aam Aadmi Party. He had claimed to have paid Rs 10 crore to party leader Satyendar Jain as protection money in jail.
He had also alleged that he paid Rs 50 crore to the Aam Aadmi Party to secure an important position in the outfit. Chandrashekhar claimed that he was promised a post in South India and a Rajya Sabha seat by the Aam Aadmi Party.
Chandrashekhar was arrested by the Delhi Police on August 7 for allegedly extorting around Rs 215 crore from Shivinder Singh, a former promoter of pharmaceutical giant Ranbaxy, and his wife Aditi Singh. He had allegedly impersonated the Union home secretary, law secretary and an officer in the prime minister’s office while speaking to them.
In his letter, Chandrashekhar had claimed that Jain visited him multiple times in jail and asked him if he disclosed to the police his contributions to the Aam Aadmi Party. Jain has been in prison since he was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate on May 30 in a money laundering case.
The conman alleged that the Delhi minister’s secretary had asked him to pay Rs 2 crore as protection money and to get basic facilities in prison. He had also alleged that the money was collected by Jain’s associates in Kolkata,
“The AAP and their so-called honest government have to be exposed and shown that even in jail they are involved in high-level corruption,” Chandrashekhar had said.
Delhi Chief Minister and AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal had claimed that Chandrashekhar’s letter was a political tactic deployed by the Bharatiya Janata Party to divert attention from the collapse of a suspension bridge, which killed 141 people in Gujarat’s Morbi.
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