Aastha Thakur
Published on: 10 October 2022 at 21:06 IST
Satyendar Jain, a leader of the Aam Aadmi Party and a minister for Delhi, has filed a petition with the Supreme Court to contest the transfer of his bail request in a money laundering case from the judge who was hearing the case to a different judge.
Senior Attorney Kapil Sibal presented the argument before Chief Justice of India (CJI) UU Lalit on Monday, and the CJI consented to schedule the matter for hearing the following day.
“List the matter tomorrow as first item on board,” CJI Lalit directed.
Jain has appealed a Delhi High Court decision that rejected his argument.
Jain had filed a complaint with the Delhi High Court in response to an order made by Principal District and Sessions Court Vinay Kumar Gupta of the Rouse Avenue court that had approved ED’s request to have Judge Vikas Dhull take over Jain’s case from Judge Geejanjali Goel.
When the ED requested a transfer of the case, citing bias on the part of Special Judge Geetanjli Goel, he was in the last stages of hearing arguments in Jain’s bail application.
The Rouse Avenue court’s approval of this led to the High Court hearing the plea.
On October 1, the High Court rejected Jain’s appeal, resulting in the present appeal before the Supreme Court.
The CBI had initially registered a case against Jain under Sections 13(2) (criminal misconduct by public servant) read with 13(e) (disproportionate assets) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988.
The action was filed on the basis of the claim that Jain had amassed moveable property between 2015 and 2017 (the check period), which he was unable to fully account for.
Based on its probe into the money laundering element, the ED temporarily seized Jain’s moveable possessions worth 4.81 crore on April 5.
The ED then took him into custody.