Satyendar Jain Moves Supreme Court to Get Bail in Money Laundering Case
Satyendar Jain Moves Supreme Court to Get Bail in Money Laundering Case
Satyendar Jain and his accomplice Manish Sisodia should be kept in harsh prison conditions proportionate to the crime that they have allegedly committed.
By Rakesh Raman
A former minister in the Delhi Government and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Satyendar Jain filed a petition today (May 15) in the Supreme Court to get bail in an ongoing money laundering case against him.
Jain who is in jail since June 2022 was denied bail last month by the Delhi High Court which observed that being an influential person Jain can tamper with the evidence if released from jail. Now Jain has challenged the Delhi High Court decision in the top court.
The case is based on a first information report (FIR) filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in 2017. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has accused Jain of money laundering through four companies allegedly linked to him. It is alleged that Jain was holding shares in these companies and thus amassed assets disproportionate to his known sources of income.
The ED claims that Jain transferred ill-gotten money to Kolkata through the hawala routes and got it back from dubious companies while he failed to show the source of money that he received.
Jain was sent to jail on June 13, 2022, as the ED – which investigates serious financial crime cases – is interrogating him in the money laundering case.
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Jain, 58, was arrested by the ED on May 30 last year under the criminal sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). Reports suggest that ED has quantified the disproportionate assets, besides establishing the alleged trail of money in the case.
According to reports, in order to hide his alleged crime, Jain – who is a close associate of Delhi chief minister (CM) Arvind Kejriwal – refused to answer ED queries, saying that he has lost his memory after Covid infection.
Since the money laundering case against Satyendar Jain appears to be real, Kejriwal’s AAP does not have any evidence to prove his innocence.
But Kejriwal and other AAP politicians are offering absurd arguments that since Jain made Mohalla Clinics in Delhi, he can’t be a culprit in the money laundering case for which the ED had arrested him last year.
In a Twitter message, ED said on June 7, 2022 that it had conducted searches on June 6, 2022 under PMLA, 2002 (Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002) at the premises of Satyendar Jain and others.
ED has conducted searches on 6.6.2022 under PMLA,2002 at the premises of Satyendar Kumar Jain and others. Various incriminating documents, digital records, cash amounting to Rs. 2.85 Crore and 133 gold coins weighing 1.80 kg in total from unexplained source have been seized. pic.twitter.com/WYSDPkPrXN
— ED (@dir_ed) June 7, 2022
The ED added in its statement that various incriminating documents, digital records, cash amounting to Rs. 2.85 crore and 133 gold coins weighing 1.80 kg in total from unexplained sources have been seized in this case.
It is believed that Jain is also allegedly involved in the Delhi liquor scam for which another AAP politician and former deputy CM of Delhi Manish Sisodia is in jail.
Recently, it was reported that Jain is spending a luxurious life in Delhi’s Tihar Jail. A video which went viral shows that he was enjoying a VIP treatment including full-body massage inside the jail cell.
The video, released in November last year, shows Jain getting a foot, back, and head massage, and reading papers while lying comfortably on a bed in jail. He is not even wearing the uniform that prisoners are supposed to wear.
Although AAP claimed that Jain was taking physiotherapy treatment, subsequent reports suggested that Kejriwal’s party was lying as the masseur in the video is a prisoner jailed in a rape case. There is a possibility that Sisodia is also enjoying luxurious treatment in jail.
It was also alleged that Jain was meeting his wife and other accused in this case to influence the outcome of the money laundering case in which he is allegedly involved.
So, it will be a travesty of justice if the Supreme Court grants bail to Satyendar Jain. Rather, he – and his accomplice Manish Sisodia – should be kept in harsh prison conditions proportionate to the crime that they have allegedly committed.
By Rakesh Raman, who is a national award-winning journalist and social activist. He is the founder of the humanitarian organization RMN Foundation which is working in diverse areas to help the disadvantaged and distressed people in the society. He has also been publishing The Integrity Bulletin news magazine since 2018 to cover local and international corruption issues to engage with different stakeholders who are trying to combat corruption in the world.
