Money laundering case: Delhi court stays proceedings against Satyendar Jain, ED seeks transfer of trial

A Delhi Court stayed proceedings in a money laundering case against AAP leader Satyendar Jain, ED seeks transfer of whole trial against Jain from a special court. His lawyers were surprised in court thinking only the bail application was going to be transferred. @IndianExpress

— Anand Mohan (@mohanreports) September 19, 2022

On Monday, Raju apprised Principal District and Sessions Judge Vinay Kumar Gupta about the application following which a notice was issued to the respondents in this case. The matter will be heard on September 30.

Advocate Sushil Kumar Gupta, who represents two of the accused Vaibhav Jain and Ankush Jain, accepted the notice on behalf of his clients expressing surprise over the fact that the ED sought transfer of the entire trial in this case. “We were given the impression that this was on transfer or bail application,” said Gupta while asking the court to provide a short date since the bail application was being heard for 40 days and was “in its final leg.”

The ED had arrested Jain in connection with a case based on a CBI FIR lodged against him in 2017 under the Prevention of Corruption Act. Jain was accused of having laundered money through four companies allegedly linked to him.

Special Judge Goel had, in the past few hearings in the bail proceedings, pulled up the agency over its probe in the case. On September 8, she had asked the ED why it went beyond the CBI case by investigating alleged proceeds of crime not mentioned in the charge sheet. She had also sought an explanation on what the criminality was in the case, remarking at one point that the companies said to be cheated by the AAP leader were also named as accused.

On September 13, the ED had sought an adjournment to address further arguments in this case. The bail hearing started on August 20 when the agency filed its written submissions opposing Jain’s plea.

Apart from Jain, the court is also hearing the bail applications of co-accused in the case, Vaibhav Jain and Ankush Jain.

The CBI had charge-sheeted Jain for allegedly amassing assets to the tune of Rs 1.47 crore in the disproportionate assets case. Later, the ED attached properties worth Rs 4.81 crore in connection with the money laundering probe.