Delhi HC seeks Enforcement Directorate’s stand on Satyendar Jain’s default bail plea in 2017 money laundering case

The ED registered a case against Jain on charge that he, “with the help of his family members and other persons, had acquired disproportionate assets from between 2015 and 2017, while he was a Delhi minister.

Delhi High Court has sought the stand of the Enforcement Directorate on the default bail plea filed by Aam Aadmi Party leader Satyendar Kumar Jain (File Image)

Written by: Malavika Prasad

3 min readNew DelhiMay 28, 2024 01:16 PM IST First published on: May 28, 2024 at 01:13 PM IST

The Delhi High Court on Tuesday sought the stand of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on the default bail plea filed by Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader and former minister Satyendar Kumar Jain, pertaining to the agency’s probe in a 2017 money laundering case.

A single judge bench of Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma issued notice to the ED and listed the matter on July 9.

Jain, who is presently under judicial custody, has challenged a May 15 trial court order which had dismissed his plea seeking default bail. His default bail plea in the HC contends that the central agency failed to complete the investigation in all respects within the statutory time period. It states that the ED has filed its prosecution complaint which is incomplete, “in an attempt to deprive” Jain of his right to default bail under Section 167(2) CrPC.

The CBI had filed a case in August 2017 under the Prevention of Corruption Act and, a year later, filed a chargesheet against Jain, his wife, and four of his associates in the disproportionate assets case. Following this case, the ED had provisionally attached immovable properties worth Rs 4.81 crore belonging to Akinchan Developers Pvt Ltd, Indo Metal Impex Pvt Ltd, Paryas Infosolutions Pvt Ltd, Mangalayatan Projects Pvt Ltd, and JJ Ideal Estate Pvt Ltd.

The Enforcement Directorate registered a Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR) against Jain and two others — Vaibhav Jain and Ankush Jain — on the charge that he, “with the help of his family members and other persons, had acquired disproportionate assets during the period from 14.02.2015 to 31.05.2017, while he was functioning as Minister of Govt. NCT of Delhi, and had laundered tainted cash amounts through Kolkata-based shell companies”

The ED had earlier argued before the trial court that the companies under investigation were only paper companies that did not earn any income, and that Jain was in control of these companies. Jain was arrested by the ED on May 30, 2022.

On April 6 last year the HC had dismissed Jain’s earlier bail plea, while observing he is an influential person with a potential to tamper with the evidence as “indicated by his conduct during the custody”.

The HC had upheld the special court’s November 17, 2022 order which had held that Jain was involved in concealing the proceeds of crime by giving cash to Kolkata-based entry operators and bringing the cash into the companies Mangalayatan Developers/Projects Pvt Ltd, Akinchan Developers Pvt Ltd, and Paryas Infosolutions Pvt Ltd. against the sale of shares to project that the income of these three companies was untainted.

In March this year, the Supreme Court had rejected Jain’s appeal against the High Court’s April 6, 2023, order and had asked him to surrender before the special court. He was released on interim bail on medical grounds in May last year.