President Grants Sanction to Prosecute Manish Sisodia, Satyendar Jain in Rs 1300 Crore Classroom Scam

New Delhi: In yet another setback for the Aam Aadmi Party, President Droupadi Murmu has sanctioned the registration of an FIR against AAP leaders and former Delhi ministers Manish Sisodia and Satyendar Jain in an alleged scam of Rs 1,300 crore in the construction of classrooms in the government schools.

The move to prosecute former ministers has been taken after a report was submitted by Delhi government’s Vigilance directorate in 2022 which had recommended an investigation into the scam.

In 2020, Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) in its report flagged the ‘irregularities’ being done in the construction of the classrooms.

CVC Flagged Irregularities In Classrooms Construction in Govt Schools

CVC in report stated the following irregularities were carried out during the tenure of Manish Sisodia as Delhi Education Minister

• Works costing Rs 42.5 crore were executed without proper tender.
• 1214 toilet blocks were constructed with extra expenditure of Rs 37 crore.
• Only 4027 classrooms were constructed in 141 schools against assessed requirement of 5825 classrooms in 194 schools.

“Role of Education and Finance Minister Manish Sisodia and PWD Minister Satyendra Jain need to be thoroughly investigated as such a huge scam would not have been carried out without the ministers in-charge of respective departments involved in the construction either being chief conspirator themselves,” CVC highlighted in its report.

Also Read: Rouse Avenue Court Orders FIR Against Arvind Kejriwal, 2 Other AAP Leaders

Sisodia, Satyendra Jain Got Bail in 2024

Manish Sisodia was granted bail by the Supreme Court after being in jail for more than 17 months for his alleged involvement in a money laundering case.  

AAP leader Satyendra Jain also got bail in a money laundering case in October 2024. 

Both Sisodia and Satyendra Jain lost elections in the recently concluded Assembly polls in Delhi.