Khushi Bajpai
Published on: September 23, 2022 at 20:03 IST
The motion by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to transfer the money laundering case against Aam Aadmi Party leader Satyendar Jain from a special court was granted by the Delhi Court on Friday.
The order was issued by Principal District and Sessions Judge Vinay Kumar Gupta after being reserved yesterday.
Special Judge Vikas Dhull will now hear the case, which was previously heard by Special Judge Geetanjali Goel.
In his appearance on behalf of the agency, Additional Solicitor General SV Raju yesterday informed the court that Jain could influence the doctors and jail guards and obtain forged documents while requesting temporary release on the grounds of ill health because he had previously served as the city’s minister of health and jails.
Raju had claimed that Jain had fabricated an ailment in order to gain admission to a hospital that was under the control of the Delhi government.
He further claimed that as a result, the agency suspects that the special court is biased since, despite the agency’s efforts to prove that Jains was a powerful figure and that certain papers may have been fabricated in his favor, the judge failed to take the evidence into account.
It was argued that even the average person would be aware that there would be some prejudice in the way a minister in charge of a hospital would be evaluated if he were admitted.
The money laundering case is based on a FIR filed by the CBI in 2017 under the Provisions of the Corruption Act against the minister and other people, in which it was alleged that the minister had accumulated assets between February 2015 and May 2017 that were out of proportion to his known sources of income.
In December 2018, the CBI filed a chargesheet against Jain.