NEW DELHI: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday moved the Delhi high court challenging the trial court’s condition that allows city cabinet minister Satyendar Jain’s lawyer to be present in visible distance, but not audible distance during his interrogation in a money laundering case.
The matter was urgently mentioned before a bench of acting chief justice Vipin Sanghi and justice Sachin Datta. The high court allowed the matter to be listed for Friday.
While remanding Jain in ED custody till June 9 for his custodial interrogation, special judge Geetanjali Goel on Tuesday allowed Jain’s request to have a lawyer at a visible distance despite objections from solicitor general Tushar Mehta, who appeared for ED.
Satyendar Jain was arrested on May 30 by ED in a case related to money laundering and hawala transaction from Kolkata based shell companies.
{{/usCountry}}Satyendar Jain was arrested on May 30 by ED in a case related to money laundering and hawala transaction from Kolkata based shell companies.
{{/usCountry}}The case is based on a 2017 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.
To be sure, Jain has repeatedly rejected the allegation and has the backing of his boss, chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, who has described the charges against Satyendar Jain as “bogus”.
“The case filed against Jain is bogus and completely motivated and unsubstantiated,” Kejriwal told reporters on Wednesday.
“The ED can continue to investigate as much as it wants, we have no objection. I am sure that he will emerge spotless out of this unjustified and fabricated case. The CBI and IT Department have already conducted their investigation and found him clean on all accounts,” the AAP chief said.
On Thursday, Kejriwal, who temporarily allocated Satyendar Jain’s portfolios to deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia, said he had received information “from my sources” that ED could next arrest Manish Sisodia.