HC dismisses Satyendar Jain’s bail plea

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Thursday dismissed the bail plea of jailed former Delhi minister Satyendar Jain in a money laundering case being probed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED).

The high court, while dismissing the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader’s bail plea, said he is an influential person and may tamper with evidence.

Satyendar Jain, who was arrested on May 30 last year by the agency, is accused of having laundered money through four companies allegedly linked to him.

Justice Dinesh Kumar Sharma also rejected the bail pleas of co-accused in the case -- Vaibhav Jain and Ankush Jain.

The detailed order is awaited.

While pronouncing the order, the high court said there was no illegally or infirmity in the trial court’s order by which the bail pleas were dismissed.

Justice Sharma said Satyendar Jain cannot be said to have satisfied the twin conditions for bail under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

The high court noted that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has filed a case of disproportionate assets (DA) and the competent court is seized of the matter.

“The present court cannot go into validity of these proceedings. Facts show that certain disproportionate assets were masked. The court has to see the prima facie case. The broad probabilities indicate that the companies associated to him are controlled and managed by him (Satyendar Jain),” it said.

The high court said the special court’s order denying bail does not suffer from any perversity and the order is well reasoned.

The high court had reserved the order on the bail plea on March 21 after hearing arguments of the counsel for the ED and the AAP leader and the two others. The three accused had challenged the trial court’s November 17 last year order by which their bail pleas were dismissed.

Satyendar Jain has earlier submitted that no case was made out against him and he has fully cooperated in the investigation and there was no requirement to continue his incarceration after filing of charge sheet.

The trial court had said that Satyendar Jain was prima facie involved in concealing the proceeds of crime.

Besides him, the trial court had also denied bail to Vaibhav Jain and Ankush Jain, saying they “knowingly” assisted Satyendar Jain in concealing the proceeds of crime and were “prima facie guilty” of money laundering. The bail pleas of all the three accused were opposed by the ED.