Who is Jaswant Singh Gajjanmajra, the AAP MLA from Punjab arrested by ED?

Professor Saab and his business ventures

Gajjanmajra, who has an MPhil in History, was a history teacher for several years and is called ‘Professor Saab’ in his area. He started his first school at a dharmashala building in Amargarh in 1992. A popular history teacher, many of Gajjanmajra’s supporters are his former students. Even after becoming an MLA, he was known to visit his school and college to give history lectures, an AAP supporter said.

Gajjanmajra also has several share-holding business ventures in Malwa Punjab, which include a popular eating joint named ‘Tara Haveli’ in Sangrur, Tara Convent School in Malerkotla, real estate venture Tara Golden Homes in Malerkotla, Tara Seeds, Tara Feed factory etc.

From LIP to AAP

In 2017, Gajjanmajra was the general secretary of Simarjeet Singh Bains’s Lok Insaaf Party (LIP). The AAP and LIP had contested the 2017 polls in alliance and the latter contested six seats. Gajjanmajra contested from Amargarh constituency but lost to Congress’s Surjit Singh Dhiman, coming third. In 2018, the LIP broke off ties with AAP.

During the Covid-19 lockdown period, people from the Amargarh constituency protested as Gajjanmajra’s school continued to charge fees from students even as the LIP requested its office bearers who run educational institutions not to do so. Following this controversy, the LIP sent a notice to Gajjanmajra. However, instead of replying to the notice, he switched sides and joined AAP in August 2020.

In 2022, Gajjanmajra contested the Assembly polls from Amargarh constituency and won with a thin margin of 6,043 votes, defeating Simranjit Singh Mann, president of Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar).

In the 2017 and 2022 Vidhan Sabha polls, Gajjanmajra had stated zero liabilities against him in his election affidavit. His assets, which were worth Rs 20 crore in 2017, reduced to Rs 19 crore in 2022.

The case against him

The ED investigation into Gajjanmajra is centred on loans taken by his company, Tara Corporation Limited, between 2011 and 2014 that were allegedly not used for their intended purpose. He had previously faced CBI raids in May 2022, which were followed by an ED raid.

The CBI had stated that he was one of the directors of Tara Corporation Limited, which was renamed Malaud Agro Limited, and was also one of the guarantors of a Rs 40 crore loan taken from a Ludhiana branch of the Bank of India. On March 31, 2014, this loan was declared a non-performing asset. At the time, Gajjanmajra had said that a businessman faces financial difficulties, at times, and is unable to pay loans.

Gajjanmajra had also said that he would come out clean and had accused the BJP of harassing and targeting its political opponents. He had even said that he was not involved in the cattle feed business and his brothers and other family members ran it.

The MLA has an outstanding bank loan worth Rs 76 crore.

AAP plays it safe

A popular businessman, Gajjanmajra was regularly seen at political functions and actively campaigned in the Sangrur bypoll in June last year following the CBI raids on his business ventures. He has also been spotted with Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann at many functions.

Following his arrest, however, the AAP chose to play it safe by pointing out that the case in question was an old one, even as critics asked why he was allowed to join the party when cases were pending against him.

“We strongly object to the way our MLA was taken away by ED from a public meeting. However, it is an old case which has been going on since before he joined AAP,” Malwinder Singh Kang, chief spokesperson of AAP said, on the ED raid.