Supreme Court issues notice to ED on Satyendar Jain's plea challenging Delhi HC order
Oct 11, 2022
New Delhi [India], October 11 : The Supreme Court on Tuesday issued notice to the Enforcement Directorate (ED) regarding Satyendar Jain's plea challenging the Delhi High Court upholding the trial Court order allowing the agency's petition to transfer his case to another judge.
A bench headed by Justice MR Shah asked the ED to file a response on Satyendar Jain's plea and listed the matter for hearing on October 31.
Satyendar Jain had challenged the Delhi HC order which upheld the trial court order of transferring his bail plea to another judge. He was represented by Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal.
The Delhi high court had dismissed the plea of Delhi minister Satyendar Jain challenging the Principal District and Sessions Court order allowing ED petition to transfer his case to another judge.
On September 23, 2022, Principal District and Sessions Court judge transferred Jain's money laundering case from one court to another.
Delhi HC while passing the order observed that the facts showed that the Enforcement Directorate (ED) did not merely harbour an apprehension of bias but had also acted upon it by rushing to the HC and therefore the apprehension cannot be said to be flimsy or not reasonable.
ED had moved an application before the Principal District and Sessions Judge of Rouse Avenue Court urging the transfer of Satyendar Jain's money laundering proceedings to another Judge.
The ED petition sought the transfer of Delhi Cabinet Minister Satyendar Jain's matter to Special Judge Geetanjali Goel after raising certain contentions related to the bail arguments being examined by the court.
The central agency on June 6 claimed to have seized Rs 2.85 crore in 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 (NCR). During these raids, the agency also seized various incriminating documents and digital records.
The money-laundering investigation was initiated on the basis of a First Information Report (FIR) registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on August 24, 2017.
This FIR was registered under Section 13(2) and 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.
