Anurag Kumar
On Friday, the Supreme Court granted ex-Delhi health minister Satyendar Jain, who has been in Tihar Jail on money laundering allegations since May of last year, medical bail for six weeks. Jain has been granted parole until July 11 and warned not to influence witnesses, tamper with evidence, or leave Delhi during this time. The court will next hear this case on July 10, when the latest medical reports of the Aam Aadmi Party leader will be submitted.
Jain, 58, was transported to the Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Hospital in Delhi on Thursday after collapsing in the bathroom of Tihar Jail. He was administered oxygen and transferred to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU); Jain had been transported to the Deen Dayal Upadhyay Hospital before being referred to LNJP.
Abhishek Manu Singhvi, a senior advocate representing Jain, cited reports from Delhi’s GB Pant Hospital certifying the need for immediate medical care and stated, “The parole petition is based on humanitarian grounds. He has reduced 33 kg (Jain). He is scheduled for surgery on his vertebrae.”
Additional Solicitor General (ASG) SV Raju argued against the ex-minister’s parole, stating that the Enforcement Directorate (ED) could not rely on the medical reports from LNJP Hospital and requesting that Jain be examined by the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in Delhi.
“On medical principles, he should be examined by AIIMS because hospital records can be falsified. Independent evaluation is required. “Medical records of Delhi hospital cannot be accurate,” he was quoted as saying by the legal news website Live Law.
If the report is favorable to him, I will concede.
When asked why he lacked confidence in the medical reports of other institutions, ASG Raju cited an affidavit highlighting the investigating agency’s concerns that Jain had served as Delhi’s minister of health and prisons, which “raises the possibility that he may have abused his position.” The ASG also cited Jain’s withdrawal of an earlier parole application (also on medical grounds) after being asked to be examined by AIIMS physicians.
On the AAP’s claims of ‘unimaginable weight loss,’ the Enforcement Directorate suggested that Jain’s weight loss may have been due to his religion and the fasting it requires. The former health minister has reportedly lost 35 kg since he was placed in prison.
This is the second time in seven days that the former minister of Delhi has been hospitalized. He was transported to the Safdarjung Hospital on Monday for a spinal injury.
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After his visit to the hospital on Thursday, Delhi’s chief minister Arvind Kejriwal criticized the central government in a tweet: “The person laboring day and night to provide good treatment and good health to the public… today, a dictator is determined to kill that good person. This dictator has only one thought: to eliminate everyone; he exists only in the first person.
The chief minister proclaimed, “God sees all, and He will render justice to all,” citing the fact that God is omniscient and will administer justice to all.
