From Our Bureau
NEW DELHI: A Delhi court on Friday allowed the Enforcement Directorate’s prayer to transfer the Prevention of Money Laundering case against Delhi Minister Satyendar Jain of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) from the special judge Geetanjali Goel to special judge Vikas Dhull.
Principal district and sessions judge Vinay Kumar Gupta, who had reserved the ruling on Thursday after a hearing prodded by the Supreme Court since it also involved Jain’s plea for bail, pronounced the order, accepting the arguments advanced by Additional Solicitor General S V Raju on Thursday.
Raju had told the court that Jain had faked his illness to get himself admitted to a hospital run by the Delhi government and he could influence the doctors and jail authorities since he had served as health and jail minister as he secured forged documents while seeking interim bail on grounds of illness.Satyendar Jain’s lawyers immediately moved Delhi High Court challenging his money laundering case referred to a new judge as his senior advocate Rahul Mehra’s urgent mentioning was allowed by a bench comprising Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Subramonium Prasad, which fixed the hearing on Monday.
Mehra rushed to the High Court to point out the urgency since the new judge has been given just a week’s time to decide the case by hearing on a day-to-day basis, starting from Friday iself at 2 PM, complaining that Jain’s right will become infructuous.
The Enforcement Directorate moved for transfer of the judge after she ordered production of the medical report despite being told that Jain was an influential personality to secure a forged report.
The district judge was not influenced by Jain’s senior advocate Kapil Sibal that the transfer application of ED was mala fide since no such apprehension was put forth before September 15 when the matter was taken up for a regular bail sought by Jain on August 17, hving been denied the same once in June. Sibal also pointed out that Jain does not hold any ministerial post to influence anybody.
After ED moving the principal district and sessions judge on September 19 to transfer the case to another judge, the proceedings in the matter were stayed until September 30.
ED has attached properties worth Rs 4.81 crore belonging to five companies in connection with an alleged disproportionate assets case against Jain. These assets reportedly were in the name of Akinchan Developers, Indo Metal Impex, Paryas Infosolutions, Mangalayatan Projects and J.J. Ideal Estate.
The money laundering case is based upon an FIR registered by the CBI against the minister and other individuals in the year 2017, under the Prevention of Corruption Act and it also filed a chargesheet against Jain in December 2018, questioning increase in his assets disproportionate to his known sources of income.
