Lagatar24 Desk
New Delhi, April 6: The Delhi High Court denied bail to former Delhi cabinet minister and senior Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Satyendar Jain on Thursday in the money laundering case.
According to Justice Dinesh Kumar Sharma, Jain is a powerful individual and cannot be deemed to have met the two requirements for release under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. (PMLA).
“The simple fact is the CBI has filed a case of disproportionate assets (DA). The present court cannot go into validity of these proceedings. Facts show that certain DA were masked. The court has to see the prima facie case.The broad probabilities indicate that the companies associated to him are controlled and managed by him. Learned special judge order (rejecting bail to Jain) does not have any perversity. Order Is well reasoned,” the High Court said.
There are chances that Jain may tamper with the evidence, Justice Sharma added.
“The accused person is influential. The petitioner cannot be held to have cleared the twin conditions under PMLA,” the Court held.
The order was reserved by the Court on March 22 and was finally announced.
Satyendar Jain was detained by the Enforcement Directorate in May 2022 and has been jailed ever since.
On November 17, 2022, the trial court had refused his request for bail. On December 1, 2022, he challenged the ruling before the High Court.
Before eventually reserving its judgment, the High Court heard arguments from Senior Advocate N Hariharan for Jain and Additional Solicitor General SV Raju for the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for more than a month.
Initial charges against Jain were filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) under Sections 13(2) (criminal misconduct by public servant) and 13(e) (disproportionate assets) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988.
