The Delhi High Court, presided by Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma, on Tuesday issued a notice to the Enforcement Directorate (ED) concerning the bail plea of Satyendar Jain, the former Delhi minister, who is currently detained in a money laundering case. The court has requested the ED to file a status report on the matter and scheduled the next hearing for July 9.
Jain, who has been accused of laundering money through four companies allegedly connected to him, is seeking what is known as default bail. He argues that the ED did not conclude its investigation within the prescribed statutory period and claims that the prosecution’s complaint (charge sheet) was incompletely filed, impacting his right to default bail under Section 167(2) of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC).
The former minister’s legal challenges extend back to his arrest by the ED on May 30, 2022, which followed a CBI FIR initiated against him in 2017 under the Prevention of Corruption Act. Despite being granted regular bail by a trial court on September 6, 2019, in the CBI case, Jain was subsequently denied default bail by a trial court on May 15, leading to the current appeal before the High Court.
