DELHI HC SEEKS ED REPLY ON JAIN’S PLEA SEEKING BAIL

The Delhi high court on Thursday sought the Enforcement Directorate (ED)’S stand on a plea by Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) minister Satyendar Jain seeking bail in a money laundering case.

Justice Dinesh Kumar Sharma issued a notice to the federal agency on Jain’s plea challenging a November 17 trial court order which denied him bail.

The Delhi high court posted the matter for hearing on December 20.

In his plea, Jain said he was not in a position to influence witnesses or tamper with evidence, and was not a flight risk if granted relief in connection with ED’S enforcement case information report (ECIR, the equivalent of a first information report) registered on September 30, 2017, under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

The AAP leader in the plea claimed since he was not in possession of any proceeds, the offence under the PMLA was not made out.

The plea said that the special judge and ED gravely misread and misapplied the provisions of PMLA by identifying proceeds of crime solely on the basis of accommodation entries (large amounts of money broken up into smaller, less-suspicious amounts) which cannot themselves lead to a punishable offence under the PMLA.