Delhi Minister Satyendar Kumar Jain's wife Poonam Jain was on Saturday granted interim bail by a court here in a money laundering case in which he was arrested over two months ago.
The court also allowed the jailed Delhi minister to withdraw his application seeking interim bail in the case. His counsel moved for withdrawal saying they have been informed that he was getting discharged from hospital.
Jain, 57, was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate on May 30 under criminal sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). He was admitted to LNJP hospital here on July 15.
“The application is taken up and the same is dismissed as withdrawn,” Special Judge Geetanjali Goel said. The court granted interim bail to Jain's wife and co-accused Poonam while directing the Enforcement Directorate's Special Public Prosecutor N K Matta to file a response by August 20 on her regular bail plea.
Poonam appeared before the court on Saturday in pursuance of the summons issued by the judge earlier and moved her bail plea on the ground that she was not arrested during the investigation and there was no requirement for her custody now since the charge sheet has already been filed. The court also extended the interim bail of two other accused persons — Ajit Prasad Jain and Sunil Kumar Jain — in the case as it reserved the order till the next hearing on their regular bail plea. Both the accused were not arrested in the case.
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The court had earlier taken cognisance of a charge sheet against the accused in the case, saying there was “prima facie” sufficient incriminating evidence about their involvement. Besides the accused persons, the charge sheet was also filed against four companies - Akinchan Developers Pvt. Ltd., Paryas Infosolutions Pvt. Ltd., Manglayatan Developers Pvt. Ltd. and JJ Ideal Estate Pvt. Ltd.
The ED initiated a money laundering investigation on the basis of a First Information Report (FIR) registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on August 24, 2017, under the sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act against Satyendar Jain and others.
The CBI alleged that Satyendar Jain, while holding the office as a minister in the Government of Delh during the period February 14, 2015, to May 31, 2017, had acquired assets that are disproportionate to his known sources of income.
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