The Supreme Court granted bail to Sanjay Badaya in a money laundering case related to the Rajasthan Jal Jeevan Mission scam. Badaya is accused of acting as an intermediary for a Minister involved in the scam.
A bench of Justices BR Gavai and KV Viswanathan passed the order, considering the fact that co-accused Piyush Jain, facing similar allegations, had been granted bail, and the trial is unlikely to conclude soon, with charges yet to be framed.
The Court’s order noted, “We find that the allegations made against the present petitioner are almost similar to the allegations made against Piyush Jain, who was granted the benefit of bail by this Court vide order dated 09.09.2024. As a matter of fact, the said Piyush Jain is also added as an accused in the predicate offense, whereas the present applicant is not an accused in the predicate offense. The amount attributed to the said Piyush Jain is to the tune of Rs.8.87 crores whereas insofar as the present applicant is concerned, it is alleged that he has received Rs.3.3 crores of proceeds of crime and an amount of Rs.1.50 crores was also deposited in the account of his father. The further allegation against the applicant as well as said Piyush Jain is that he was facilitating awards of contract from the PHED (Public Health Engineering Department) and receiving money on behalf of Minister of the said Department. Admittedly, the said Minister has also not been made an accused in the present case. Apart from that, substantial evidence in the present case is in the nature of documents and as such, there is no possibility of tampering with the evidence. All these documents are seized by the prosecution. It is further noted that the charges are yet to be framed. There are 50 witnesses to be examined and evidence contains around 8000 pages. As such, the possibility of the trial being concluded expeditiously is also remote. Taking into consideration all these aspects, and particularly the order passed by co-ordinate bench in the case of Piyush Jain, we are inclined to allow the application.”
Badaya was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on July 16 and had spent nearly five months in custody. The case involves two tenders worth Rs. 197 crores awarded on the basis of fraudulent certificates. Statements from co-accused under Section 50 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) indicated that Badaya facilitated bribe payments and managed employees of the Public Health Engineering Department (PHED) on behalf of then Minister Mahesh Joshi. After the Rajasthan High Court denied his bail in November, Badaya approached the Supreme Court, which granted him relief.
Cause Title: SANJAY BADAYA v. DIRECTORATE OF ENFORCEMENT
