The Delhi high court on Thursday denied bail to Aam Aadmi Party leader and former Delhi minister Satyendar Jain in the money laundering case in which he had been in custody since May 30, 2022. The bail of co-accused Vaibhav Jain and Ankush Jain was also denied. The court said that all of the three accused failed to meet and pass the two conditions specified for bail under PMLA. In November last year, Jain was denied bail by a trial court.
Justice Dinesh Kumar Sharma said that Satyendar Jain is an influential person and he cannot be held to have cleared the twin conditions under PMLA. The court said that broad probabilities indicate that the accused companies associated with Jain are controlled and managed by him.
The verdict comes at a time when apart from Jain, AAP’s Sisodia is also in custody in connection with the Delhi liquor police case — in a blow to the AAP. After Sisodia’s arrest, both Jain and Sisodia resigned from Arvind Kejriwal’s cabinet.
Satyendar Jain is accused of having laundered money through four companies allegedly linked to him.
On March 21, the high court heard the arguments of the ED and Jain and reserved the verdict for April 6. The high court said there was no illegality or infirmity in the trial court’s order by which bail pleas were dismissed. The BJP welcomed the order and said the ‘corruption degree’ of Kejriwal is out again. “Once again Delhi HC now denies bail to Satyandar Jain. He is in jail for last 10 months — is this vendetta? Manish Sisodia in jail too and denied relief by courts; called key architect of Sharab ghotala. How long can Kejriwal diver issues and defend them calling them kattar imaandar,” BJP’s national spokespeson Shehzad Poonawalla said.
