Delhi High Court Rejects Jailed AAP Leader Satyendar Jain's Bail Plea In Money Laundering Case

Citing the possibility of tampering with evidence as he is an influential person, the high court dismissed the bail plea.?

Aam Admi Party leader Satyendar Jain was arrested on May 30 last year by Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection to a money laundering case involving four companies allegedly linked to him.

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

The detailed order is awaited.

The high court said there was no illegally or infirmity in the trial court's order by which bail pleas were dismissed.

The three accused had challenged the trial court's November 17 last year order.?

The case so far

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.

Satyendar Jain had 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 the filing of the charge sheet.

The AAP leader has challenged the trial court's November 17, 2022 order by which his bail plea was dismissed on the ground that he was prima facie involved in concealing the proceeds of crime.

Besides him, the trial court had also denied bail to two co-accused -- Vaibhav Jain and Ankush Jain -- saying that they "knowingly" assisted Jain in concealing the proceeds of crime and were "prima facie guilty" of money laundering.

The high court, which had also reserved its order on the bail pleas of Vaibhav and Ankush, will also pronounce the order on their petitions.

The bail pleas of all three accused were opposed by the ED.

The ED's counsel had argued that the AAP leader's stand that there are no proceeds of crime can be "demolished" by the material on record which also shows that he was "in the thick of things".

In its reply filed in the court, the agency has said that the bail plea of Satyendar Jain, who was a sitting minister at the time of the alleged offence, should be dismissed as his release would obstruct further investigation and there is CCTV footage from Tihar jail, where he is in judicial custody, to show that he is an "influential person" who may influence witnesses and frustrate the proceedings.

The ED had arrested Jain in the money laundering case based on a CBI FIR lodged against Jain in 2017 under the Prevention of Corruption Act. He was granted regular bail by a trial court on September 6, 2019, in the case lodged by the CBI.

"Money laundering is crystal clear. Their case is that Satyendar Jain has nothing to do with it. I have to establish that Satyendar Jain was in the thick of these things," Additional Solicitor General S V Raju had argued before the high court.

(With PTI Inputs)