Delhi minister Satyendar Jain’s hearing on hold as ED files plea to transfer case

Principal and sessions judge Vinay Kumar Gupta issued notice to all the accused on ED’s plea to transfer the case from the court of special judge Geetanjali Goel, who the agency said was hearing the case with a “pre-determined” notion

A Delhi court on Monday put on hold till September 30 the trial court’s proceedings against Delhi minister Satyendar Jain and others in connection with a money laundering case after the Enforcement Directorate (ED) sought that the matter be transferred to another judge.

Delhi minister Satyendar Jain. (PTI)

Principal and sessions judge Vinay Kumar Gupta issued notice to all the accused on ED’s plea to transfer the case from the court of special judge Geetanjali Goel, who the agency said was hearing the case with a “pre-determined” notion.

Being the principal and sessions judge, Gupta assigns judges for each case.

“In the meantime, the proceedings before the court of special judge (Geetanjali Goel) shall remain stayed till the next date of hearing,” the court said in its order.

Over the past few hearings, special judge Goel pulled up the agency over its probe in the case while hearing arguments on bail pleas by the MLA and two other co-accused, Ankush Jain and Vaibhav Jain, in the matter.

Their bail hearing was in its final stage when ED, on Thursday, verbally informed special judge Goel that they will an application seeking the case be transferred from her court. The court had then posted the hearing for the bail arguments on September 20.

Appearing for ED, additional solicitor general (ASG) SV Raju on September 15, informed the court that they were moving a transfer plea.

Senior advocate N Hariharan, appearing for Satyendar Jain, at the time expressed his displeasure and submitted, “It is really unfair. Totally uncalled for. They are pre-empting things. We’ll oppose it tooth and nail.”

The case is based on a 2017 Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) FIR lodged against the minister in the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government. ED has accused him of having laundered money through four companies allegedly linked to him and where he was holding shares, while amassing disproportionate income.

According to ED, Jain transferred money to Kolkata through hawala channel and got it back from dummy companies in the form of accommodation entries, even though he could not show the source of the money received.

Accommodation entries are usually done by hawala operators to accommodate illegal money in a company through a shell firm or in the form of cash by breaking large amounts into smaller sums to avoid suspicion.

The ED had earlier provisionally attached assets worth ₹4.81 crore of Jain’s family and companies “beneficially owned and controlled” by him as part of a money-laundering probe against him.

According to the charge sheet, out of 10 accused, four are private firms and six individuals are accused in this case, including Satyendar Jain and his wife Poonam Jain.

Recently, the court took cognisance of the prosecution complaint (charge sheet) filed by ED against Satyendar Jain, his wife and eight others including four firms in connection with the money laundering case.