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The Enforcement Directorate on Monday arrested Delhi government minister Satyendar Jain in a case connected to hawala transactions related to Kolkata-based companies owned and controlled by him. Jain is the minister of Health, Home, Power and PWD, among other departments, in the AAP-led Delhi government.

ED sources said Jain, 57, was evasive during questioning today, following which he was arrested from the agency’s office in Delhi. He will be produced before a court on Tuesday morning.

The ED has recently provisionally attached immovable properties worth Rs 4.81 crore belonging to Akinchan Developers Pvt Ltd, Indo Metal Impex Pvt Ltd, Paryas Infosolutions Pvt Ltd, Manglayatan Projects Pvt Ltd, JJ Ideal Estate Pvt. Ltd and Swati Jain, Sushila Jain, and Indu Jain. All three women are relatives of the Delhi Health Minister.

Under pressure due to the murder of Sidhu Moosewala, and for having leaked the confidential list of protectees whose security was either withdrawn or pruned, the Bhagwant Mann-led AAP government in Punjab Monday launched a damage control exercise.

Mann met senior administrative and police officers at his residence and cancelled a Cabinet meeting scheduled for 11:30 am. The CM also directed Home Secretary Anurag Verma to write to the Punjab and Haryana HC, requesting Chief Justice to assign a sitting judge to probe the murder. Mann also ordered an inquiry into pruning of Moosewala's security.

The Congress list of ten Rajya Sabha nominees may have shocked many outside the Congress, but it makes sense to the party faithful and those familiar with the palace intrigue and games that are often played in the grand old party. The Rajya Sabha nominations make mockery of Udaipur Chintan Shivar deliberations such as one family one ticket, 50 under 50 norms, and adequate representation of women, minorities, dalits, adivasis etc.

The induction of Rajiv Shukla, Pramod Tiwari, Mukul Wasnik, Randeep Singh Surjewala, and Ranjeet Ranjan reflects Sonia Gandhi's desire to reward loyalty. Jairam Ramesh, P Chidambaram, Vivek Tanka , Ajay Makan and Imran Pratapgarhi have made the cut on grounds of their 'utility' factor. More significantly, the absence of Ghulam Nabi Azad and Anand Sharma is intriguing as these two dissenters were recently drafted in the AICC's political affairs committee.

The BJP on Sunday announced the names of 18 candidates from nine states in its first two lists for the June 10 Rajya Sabha (RS) elections, including Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman from Karnataka and her Cabinet colleague Piyush Goyal from Maharashtra.

Six candidates are from Uttar Pradesh; three are from Maharashtra, two each from Karnataka and Bihar; and one candidate each from Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, Haryana, and Jharkhand. Union minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and senior leader Vinay Sahasrabuddhe did not feature in the lists. The name of BJP general secretary Dushyant Gautam, an RS MP from Haryana, was also missing.

Punjabi singer Sidhu Moose Wala was shot dead by unidentified assailants in Jawaharke village of Mansa district on Sunday, May 29.

This follows a day after the Punjab Police withdrew security of 424 people, including Punjabi singer Sidhu Moose Wala.

Sidhu Moose Wala had contested this year's Punjab assembly election on a Congress ticket from Mansa and was defeated by AAP candidate Vijay Singla by a huge margin of 63,000 votes. Vijay Singla was recently sacked by Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann over charges of corruption.