Finally Satyendar Jain gets bail from Supreme Court
On medical grounds, the Supreme Court granted temporary bail to ex-Delhi health minister Satyendar Jain, who has been held in Tihar Jail since May last year on money laundering accusations.
Jain has been granted bail till July 11 and has been cautioned not to influence witnesses, tamper with evidence, or leave Delhi during that time.
The case will be heard again in court on July 10, when the Aam Aadmi Party leader’s most recent medical records will be produced.
Jain, 58, was brought to Delhi’s Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Hospital after collapsing in the Tihar Jail’s lavatory on Thursday.
He was put on oxygen and sent to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU); Jain had been transported to Deen Dayal Upadhyay Hospital before being referred to LNJP.
In representing Jain, senior attorney Abhishek Manu Singhvi alluded to reports from Delhi’s GB Pant Hospital certifying the need for immediate medical attention and stated, “The bail plea is on humanitarian grounds.” He (Jain) has shed 33 kg. He is scheduled for spinal surgery.”
In arguing against bail for the ex-minister, Additional Solicitor General (ASG) SV Raju stated that the Enforcement Directorate (ED) could not trust the medical reports of LNJP Hospital and sought that Jain be evaluated by Delhi’s All India Institute of Medical Sciences.
“Let AIIMS examine him on medical grounds because records from other hospitals can be fudged.” An independent examination is required. He was the health minister… the medical records of the Delhi hospital cannot be correct,” he said, according to the legal news website Live Law.
“If the report is favourable to him, I will concede.”
When asked why he had no confidence in the medical findings of other hospitals, ASG Raju cited an affidavit that emphasised the investigative agency’s worries that Jain had been Delhi’s minister of health and prisons and this ’causes anxiety he may be exploiting his position’.
The ASG also cited an earlier bail application (again, for medical reasons) that Jain withdrew after being ordered to be examined by AIIMS doctors.
The Enforcement Directorate claimed that Jain’s weight loss may have been due to his faith and the fasting it necessitates in response to the AAP’s allegations of ‘unimaginable weight loss’ – the ex-health minister reportedly lost 35 kg since being imprisoned.
This is also the second hospitalisation for the former Delhi minister in the last seven days. He was brought to Safdarjung Hospital on Monday for a spinal injury.
Following his visit to the hospital on Thursday, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal aimed at the central government, tweeting: “The person working day and night to provide good treatment and good health to the public… today a dictator is bent on killing that good person.” That despot has only one thought: to finish everyone; he lives only in ‘I’.”
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