Two days after conducting searches at 37 locations as part of its money laundering investigation into alleged corruption in the construction of classrooms in Delhi government schools, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) announced Friday the seizure of 322 bank passbooks linked to mule accounts. It also recovered original Delhi government departmental files and rubber stamps of Public Works Department (PWD) officials.
According to the ED, the mule accounts—opened in the names of labourers—were used to siphon government funds under the guise of legitimate transactions. The probe stems from a First Information Report (FIR) registered on April 30 by the Anti-Corruption Branch (ACB) of the Delhi Police against former AAP ministers Manish Sisodia and Satyendar Jain. Sisodia was questioned by the ACB on Friday in connection with the case.
An ED spokesperson said the investigation concerns financial misappropriation exceeding ₹2,000 crore in the construction of approximately 12,748 classrooms by the PWD between 2015 and 2023. While only 2,405 classrooms were initially sanctioned, the number ballooned to 7,180 and eventually to 12,748 without proper approvals, resulting in massive cost escalations.
The agency flagged unjustified adoption of costlier specifications suggested by M/s Babbar & Babbar Associates and the execution of duplicate or inflated work. Cost increases of up to 49.03% were observed across different phases of the project. Searches at a private contractor’s premises yielded forged letterheads, fake procurement records, inflated invoices, and evidence of dummy firms with no actual operations receiving large sums of public money.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has dismissed the ED’s actions as politically motivated, claiming the raids are intended to deflect attention from the BJP’s demolition drives affecting the urban poor in Delhi.
