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- Published: June 18, 2022 14:40
New Delhi: AAP minister Satyendra Jain’s troubles are far from over. A city court on Saturday denied bail to him in the money laundering case related to Kolkata-based shell companies. The AAP Minister has been in custody since May 30 and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) are interrogating the illegal trail of money via shell companies.
Special judge Geetanjali Goel rejected Satyendra Jain’s bail petition.
“Bail application is dismissed,” the judge said.
He was arrested by the ED officials last month over accusations of involvement in hawala transactions via Kolkata based shell firms. He is said to have laundered money through at least 4 ghost companies linked to him.
Under the hawala transactions, two parties do financial transactions via local operators, thus keeping the money away from the banking channels.
The ED started probe against the AAP minister, based on a CBI case, which booked him in August 2017 under the Prevention of Corruption Act. The CBI had lodged case against him & his family for alleged siphoning off funds to the tune of Rs 1.62 crore.
The CBI in its findings claimed that Mr Jain & his family had set up 4 shell firms, which were used to launder money to the tune of Rs 11.78 crore in 2011-12 and Rs 4.63 crore in 2015-16, when he was minister in AAP govt.
Jain’s counsel argued before court that Jain co-operated with the agencies and hence no custody is required. However, the ED contested the claims and said that Jain was evasive & non-cooperative during the investigation.
Days ago, the Delhi Health Minister claimed that he has lost his memory, leading to speculations whether it was a ‘clever tactic’ to escape the law or was there anything genuineness in his claims, given the fact that he suffered severe bout of Covid last year and had to hospitalized due to complications.
