Bail for Jain: Six weeks' relief for ex-Delhi minister on medical grounds
Satyendar Jain bail: Satyendar Jain was hospitalised and put on oxygen support on Thursday after he collapsed inside a washroom in Tihar Jail.
The Supreme Court on Friday gave ex-Delhi health minister Satyendar Jain - in Tihar Jail since May last year on money laundering charges - interim bail for six weeks on medical grounds. Jain has been given bail till July 11 and has been warned against influencing witnesses, tampering evidence or leaving Delhi within that period. The court will hear this matter next on July 10, when the Aam Aadmi Party leader's latest medical reports will be submitted.
Jain, 58, was rushed to Delhi's Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Hospital Thursday after collapsing in Tihar Jail's washroom. He was put on oxygen support and shifted to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU); Jain had first been taken to the Deen Dayal Upadhyay Hospital and then referred to LNJP.
Appearing for Jain, senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi referred to reports from Delhi's GB Pant Hospital certifying the need for immediate medical attention, and said, "The bail plea is on humanitarian grounds. He (Jain) has lost 33 kg. He is on a surgery list for vertebrae."
Read here: Ex-AAP minister Jain in ICU, on oxygen support at Delhi's LNJP hospital
Arguing against bail for the ex-minister, Additional Solicitor General (ASG) SV Raju said the Enforcement Directorate (ED) could not trust the medical reports of LNJP Hospital and requested Jain be examined by Delhi's All India Institute of Medical Sciences.
"On medical grounds, let him be examined by AIIMS because records of other hospitals can be fudged. Independent examination is necessary. He was the health minister... medical records of Delhi hospital cannot be correct," he was quoted by legal news website Live Law.
"If the report is in his favour, I will concede."
When asked why he had no confidence in medical reports of other hospitals, ASG Raju referred to an affidavit that highlighted the investigating agency's concerns that Jain had been Delhi's minister of health and prisons and this 'causes apprehension he may be misusing his position'. The ASG also pointed to an earlier bail plea (again, on medical grounds) Jain withdrew after he was asked to be examined by doctors from AIIMS.
On the AAP's claims of 'unimaginable weight loss' - the ex-health minister has reportedly 35 kg since he was put in jail - the Enforcement Directorate suggested Jain's weight loss may have been due to his faith and the fasting it requires.
This is also the second time in the past seven days the former Delhi minister has been hospitalised. On Monday he was taken to the Safdarjung Hospital for a spinal injury.
After his Thursday visit to the hospital Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal targeted the central government and tweeted: "The person working day and night to provide good treatment and good health to the public… today a dictator is bent on killing that good person. That dictator has only one thought - to finish everyone, he lives only in 'I'."
Read here: 'God is watching': Kejriwal after Jain falls in Tihar Jail, sent to hospital
"God is watching all, He will do justice to all," the chief minister declared.
