In a significant jolt to jailed AAP minister Satyendar Jain, a Delhi court on Thursday denied bail to the leader in an alleged money-laundering case. Jain was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate on May 30 and has been in custody since then. Besides Jain, the bail plea of two other co-accused in the case has also been denied. On Wednesday, Special judge Vikas Dhull had reserved the order for today stating that the order was not ready.
Jain was arrested earlier this year under criminal sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) with the ED case based on a CBI FIR in 2017 where he was accused of having laundered money through four companies allegedly linked to him.
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The rejection of bail comes just days after the Tihar Jail superintendent was removed on allegations of according special treatment to Jain inside the jail premises. “Jail Superintendent of Tihar Jail no. 7, Ajit Kumar, DANICS, has been suspended. He has prima facie been found to have committed irregularities that warrant inquiry,” news agency PTI quoted a source in the prison department of the Delhi Government as saying, adding that the matter was connected to Jain getting special treatment in the jail.
During a previous hearing, Jain’s lawyer had submitted before the court that the ED’s allegations that the minister received a foot massage and fresh-cut fruits in jail were made in a bid to t “prejudice” the judge’s mind.
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In its case against Jain, the ED has alleged that the minister — then employed with the central public works department — “beneficially owned and controlled” certain companies and “received accommodation entries to the tune of Rs 4.81 crore from shell companies against cash transferred to Kolkata-based entry operators through the Hawala route” during the period of 2015-16.
In its charge-sheet filed in December 2018, the CBI stated that Jain held assets disproportionate to his known sources of income. As per the CBI, the alleged DA was to the tune of Rs 1.47 crore, about 217 per cent more than his known sources of income, during 2015-17. The Income Tax Department had also probed these transactions and issued an order attaching “benami assets” allegedly linked to Jain.