A Special Court on Saturday rejected the bail plea of Delhi minister Satyendar Jain in a money laundering case [Satyendar Jain v. Enforcement Directorate]..Special judge Geetanjali Goel dismissed the bail plea.Jain, who was sent to 14 days of judicial remand earlier, had referred to poor health, particularly sleep apnea, to seek bail through his counsel N Hariharan and Bhavook Chauhan..Satyendar Jain cited memory loss due to COVID-19 when faced with documents: ED to Delhi court.His counsel pointed out there was no chance of tampering with the evidence, as it had already been collected.“Witnesses are available. Satisfies the triple test… no such allegation of influencing witnesses anywhere. When I was outside and had a chance of influencing, there’s no such allegation against me. It has been deliberately raised to defeat bail,” submitted Hariharan.The investigating agency, it was contended, had already quantified the disproportionate assets, besides establishing the alleged trail of money in the case..It was also submitted that Jain had appeared and recorded his statements before the investigation agency on seven occasions and cooperated on “every scope” with the agency.According to Additional Solicitor General SV Raju who appeared along with Special Prosecutor NK Matta, the matter essentially involved converting cash into something seemingly lawful and money laundering..The CBI had initially registered a case under Sections 13(2) (criminal misconduct by public servant) read with 13(e) (disproportionate assets) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988. The case was registered on the allegation that Jain had acquired movable properties in the name of various persons between 2015 and 2017 (check period) which he could not satisfactorily account for.. On April 5 this year, the ED, on the basis of its investigation into the money laundering aspect, provisionally attached immovable properties worth ₹4.81 crore belonging to M/s Akinchan Developers Pvt Ltd, M/s Indo Metal Impex Pvt Ltd, M/s Paryas Infosolutions Pvt Ltd, M/s Manglayatan Projects Pvt Ltd, M/s JJ Ideal Estate Pvt Ltd, and other persons under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002.The enforcement agency alleged that between 2015 and 2016, when Jain was a public servant, these companies “beneficially owned and controlled by him” received accommodation entries amounting to ₹4.81 crore from shell companies against the cash transferred to Kolkata-based entry operators through a hawala route.
