Delhi HC denies bail to Satyendar Jain, aides in PMLA case

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Thursday dismissed the bail plea of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Satyendar Jain and his two aides in a money laundering case being probed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED)

On March 22, the court had reserved its order on their bail pleas.

Justice Dinesh Kumar Sharma said that Jain is an influential person and cannot be said to have satisfied the twin conditions for bail 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 the 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 judge said.

Jain has been in custody since May 30 last year and his co-accused are Vaibhav Jain and Ankush Jain.

A trial court had, on November 17, 2022, dismissed the leader's bail application.

According to the trial court, it has prima facie come on record that Satyendar Jain was "actually involved" in hiding the proceeds of crime by paying cash to entry operators based in Kolkata and then bringing the money into three companies against the sale of shares to demonstrate that their revenues were clean.

In the petition before the High Court, Jain had argued that the Special Judge and the ED have gravely misread and misapplied the Prevention of Money Laundering Act "by identifying proceeds of crime solely on the basis of accommodation entries".

The accommodation entries cannot itself lead to a punishable offence under PMLA, it was argued.

Because the charge sheet has already been filed in the case, Jain had said that he is "not required to be incarcerated" during the trial.