Satyendra Jain back in Tihar after 9 months as SC rejects regular bail plea

Former Delhi health minister and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Satyendra Jain returned to Tihar Jail on Monday, hours after the Supreme Court dismissed his regular bail plea in a money laundering case, officials said.

"Jain arrived at Tihar jail in the evening. He was taken to jail number 7 after the formalities of lodging him in the prison were completed," a jail official said. The 69-year-old was medically examined before being sent to a separate cell in the prison, officials said.

Dressed in a green T-shirt and wearing a back pain belt, Jain left his Saraswati Vihar residence in northwest Delhi at around 5.45 pm to surrender at the jail. Before leaving the house, he hugged his wife and other family members. He was accompanied by his wife and a relative in a car. Jain has two daughters. The other relatives came in another car.

The top court rejected a verbal request by Jain's counsel to allow him to surrender in a week's time. The SC had on 17 January reserved its verdict on his regular bail plea.

Jain was out on interim bail granted to him by the top court on 26 May 2023 on medical grounds, after he fell in the jail's bathroom. The bail was extended from time to time. In June last year, he also underwent a spinal operation.

Jain had moved the apex court challenging the 6 April 2023 order of the Delhi High Court dismissing his regular bail application in the case. The ED arrested the AAP leader on 30 May 2022 on charges of laundering money through four companies allegedly linked to him. The arrest was based on a CBI FIR registered against him in 2017 under the Prevention of Corruption Act.