Delhi, India: On April 6, the Delhi High Court denies bail to Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader and former Delhi Government Cabinet Minister Satyendar Jain in a money laundering case. The Court also denied bail to the co-accused Vaibhav Jain and Ankush Jain.
The Court said there is no illegality or perversity in the special judge’s order denying bail to all three accused. The Court said, “Satyendar Jain is an influential person and has the potential of tampering with evidence. The petitioner (Jain), at this stage, can’t be held to clear the twin conditions of PMLA.”
The trial court dismissed Satyendar Jain’s bail application on November 17, 2022. Then, Satyendar Jain moved the Delhi High Court for bail in December 2022, and the Court reserved the order on his bail application on March 22.
The trial court’s order held that prima facie Satyendar Jain “used the process of sending the proceeds of crime in the form of cash to Kolkata based entry operators and thereafter, had obtained accommodation entries in the aforementioned companies against the sale of shares and thereafter, bought the shares back without any consideration, shows that the said process was adopted to conceal the source of cash generated by co-accused Satyendar Kumar Jain by committing the offence under Section 13(1)(e) of the PC Act. Therefore, prima facie offence of money laundering is made out.”
Satyendar Jain’s counsel argued before the Delhi High Court that the trial court gravely misread and misapplied the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) “by identifying proceeds of crime solely on the basis of accommodation entries”.
Satyendar Jain’s Case
In the case, the ED on June 6 had seized 2.85 crore of cash and 133 gold coins weighing 1.80 kg from Satyendra Jain’s aides during its day-long raid conducted at various places across Delhi and the National Capital Region. The agency had also seized various incriminating documents and digital records during these raids.
The ED then said that the total movable assets were seized from an “unexplained source” and were “found to be secreted” in the raided premises.
The assets were seized during a search operation carried out under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002 at the premises of Satyendar Jain, his wife Poonam Jain, and his accomplices and other persons who had either directly or indirectly assisted him or participated in the processes of money laundering.
ED investigation in the case has revealed that one accomplice member of Lala Sher Singh Jivan Vigyan Trust had provided accommodation entries for the transfer of land from a company beneficially owned by Satyendar Jain to family members of accomplices in order to alienate the property and to frustrate the process of confiscation.
The ED had initiated a money-laundering investigation on the basis of the First Information Report registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on August 24, 2017, under Section 13(2) r/w 13(1)(e) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 against Satyendar Jain, Poonam Jain, Ajit Prasad Jain, Sunil Kumar Jain, Vaibhav Jain and Ankush Jain.
Satyendar Jain: A Habitual Offender
Earlier on November 1, Conman Sukesh Chandrasekhar wrote a letter to Delhi Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena and alleged that he had paid Rs 10 crores as “protection money” to AAP Minister Satyendar Jain. He claimed to have known him since 2015. The hand-written letter of Conman Chandrashekhar sent to LG Saxena through his lawyer stated, “After my arrest in 2017, I was lodged in Tihar Jail and was visited multiple times by Mr Satyendar Jain, who held the portfolio of jail minister. In 2019 again, I was visited by Jain, whose secretary asked me to pay Rs 2 crore every month as protection money and to get basic facilities inside the jail.”
Sukesh Chandrasekhar is accused of running an extortion racket worth Rs 200 crore from the inside of Tihar jail. He has also duped people on the pretext of promising them jobs
On November 4, he wrote another letter and alleged to have paid Rs 50 crores to Delhi CM Kejriwal for the Rajya Sabha seat. He added there was another demand of Rs 200 crores. He writes in his letter that he is being terrorised at the behest of Jain and ex-DG (Prisons) of Tihar after his complaint to the Delhi LG went public. Sukesh Chandrasekhar further wrote in this letter, “After my first complaint went public in the media, Satyendar Jain started threatening me through the jail administration and the ex-DG as the truth is going to be out and they (AAP) are going to be exposed to a different level.”
On November 19, he alleged that the AAP minister Satyendar Jain had sought his help to convert 20 million dollars into INR and bitcoins. He stated that Jain called him at 2 am in February 2017, asking for his assistance in converting $20 million in Indian rupees and bitcoin.
Satyender Jain, according to the conman Sukesh, indicated that the money must be collected from his business associates who operate a distillery in Bengaluru.
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