The Supreme Court on Thursday sought the response of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on a bail plea by a former Delhi cabinet minister in a money laundering case.
The bench of Justices AS Bopanna & Hima Kohli also gave Jain the liberty to move the top court’s vacation bench seeking an urgent listing of his plea against a Delhi High Court judgment denying him bail.
The bench directed that “Issue notice and liberty to move vacation bench, objections may be filed.”
Appearing for Jain, Senior Advocate AM Singhvi submitted today that the former minister’s health condition was precarious.
Singhvi told the court that, “He has lost 35 kgs and he is a skeleton now.”
While denying bail, the high court held that Jain is an influential person and can’t be said to have satisfied the twin conditions for bail under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.
However, since May 2022, Jain has been behind bars when he was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate.
The trial court rejected his bail plea on November 17, 2022, where he challenged the order before the High Court on December 1, 2022.
The Central Bureau of Investigation initially registered a case under Sections 13(2) (criminal misconduct by public servant) read with 13(e) (disproportionate assets) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 against Jain.
Therefore, the case was registered on the allegation that Jain acquired movable properties in the name of various persons between 2015 and 2017 which he could not satisfactorily account for.
Later, ED also registered a case and alleged several companies that were beneficially owned and controlled by him received accommodation entries amounting to ₹4.81 crore from shell companies against cash transferred to Kolkata-based entry operators through a hawala route.
