Enough evidence against Delhi minister Jain in ED case, says court

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NEW DELHI: A special PMLA court in Delhi on Friday took cognisance of an Enforcement Directorate chargesheet filed against Delhi cabinet minister Satyendar Jain, prima facie validating the probe agency’s finding that the minister and his family members were involved in laundering of more than Rs 16 crore through four shell companies.
The ED had filed a chargesheet on July 27 against Jain, his wife, Poonam Jain, Ajit Prasad Jain, Sunil Kumar Jain, Vaibhav Jain, Ankush Jain, Akinchen Developers Pvt Ltd, Manglayatan Developers Pvt Ltd, JJ Ideal Estate Pvt ltd and Paryas Infosolutions Pvt Ltd.tnn
The court said, “Looking at the material on record, it can be said that there is prima facie sufficient incriminating evidence about the involvement of the accused. Thus, cognisance of the offence under Section 3 of PMLA, punishable under Section 4, is taken. Accused No 1 (Satyendar Jain), 5 (Vaibhav Jain) and 6 (Ankush Jain) are already in custody, and while accused No 1 has joined through VC (video conference), accused No 5 and 6 are present from JC (judicial custody). Documents be supplied to them.”
Special judge Geetanjali Goel summoned all the accused who were not in custody, including the four companies, to appear before the court on August 6, when the matter has been posted for framing of charges and trial. The court also granted interim bail to accused Ajeet Kumar Jain and Sunil Kumar Jain on furnishing a bail bond of Rs 1 lakh.
The court issued summons to the minister’s wife, Poonam Jain, for August 6 too, since she was not present in court.
The development will put pressure on chief minister Arvind Kejriwal for sacking his cabinet colleague. The CM has so far refused to remove Jain claiming that he has examined the papers and found that the latter didn’t do anything wrong.
Jain, who was arrested on May 30 and has been denied bail, is admitted at LNJP Hospital since he claimed to be unwell. In a setback to him, Delhi High Court on Thursday said that his bail application should not be decided on the basis of a report from LNJP Hospital which is under the control of the Delhi government.
The ED chargesheet has accused the minister of routing his black money through Kolkata-based shell companies to another set of shell companies floated here for the purpose of purchasing land in the national capital.
“Accused Satyendar Kumar Jain and his family members exercised control and had a substantial shareholding in certain companies, namely Paryas Infosolution Pvt Ltd, Indo Metalimpex Pvt Ltd, Akinchan Developers Pvt Ltd and Mangalayatan Projects Pvt Ltd, and these companies are also found to be involved in laundering of money amounting to Rs 16.38 cr,” the special court said, allowing charges to be framed.
In its prosecution complaint (chargesheet), the ED claimed that “during 2015-16, when Satyendar Jain was a public servant, four companies (beneficially owned and controlled by him) received accommodation entries of Rs 4.81 crore from shell companies against cash transferred to Kolkata-based entry operators through the hawala route.”
The court also referred to the statements, recorded under Section 50 PMLA by the ED, of Jain’s co-accused who were allegedly used by him to transfer the alleged proceeds of crime to mislead the probe.
“The agricultural land purchased with the amount received as accommodation entries against cash in Mangalayatan Projects Pvt Ltd was transferred in the name of Swati Jain, Sushila Jain and Indu Jain to frustrate the proceeds of crime,” the court said. Even the payment for purchase of land had not been made through the cheques mentioned in the registration deeds, according to the chargesheet, a serious charge of misrepresentation and forgery.
Identifying Jain as the prime accused or ‘A-1’, the chargesheet said that it was Jain who scripted the whole money laundering operation to buy land through benami transactions. “The companies in question were beneficially owned and controlled by accused A-1 (Satyendar Jain) and the idea of accommodation entries was a brainchild of A-1, major decisions in the company were taken by A-1 and the scheme of laundering of proceeds of crime was conceptualised and executed by A-1”, said the chargesheet.
During the hearing, the court pulled up the ED for wrongly mentioning the name of Jain with the accused companies in the chargesheet, observing that he was neither a director of the company, nor associated with them.
“He (Jain) was neither the director, nor associated with them. How will the companies become Satyendar Jain’s just by naming him? Is this the first time that you are filing a prosecution complaint? Don’t you vet the document before giving it to the court. Should I conduct a fishy inquiry on the basis of these papers? Do you think the IO can give anything he wants? Jain does not become the director just because you have written it,” the judge told the ED’s special public prosecutor.
The court further noted that half of the documents given in the chargesheet were photocopies. “This would not be proved. Is this how ED functions? I don’t know where the stage of rectification is,” the judge remarked.
Additional Solicitor General ASV Raju told the court that he would file an amended memo of the accused.
Jain was arrested on May 30 and sent to 14-day judicial custody on June 13, at the end of his custodial interrogation, by the ED. The agency had alleged that Jain, while posted and functioning as minister in the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi, during the period, February 14, 2015 to May 31, 2017, acquired assets in the form of movable and immovable properties in his name and in the name of his family members, which were disproportionate to his “known sources of income”.
CBI has already filed a chargesheet against the minister under Prevention of Corruption Act for “disproportionate income”. The ED’s case is based on a CBI FIR of 2017.