Jalgaon housing scam: SC refuses to quash criminal proceedings against former Maharashtra minister

MUMBAI: The Supreme Court on Thursday dismissed petitions filed by former state housing minister Suresh Jain, seeking bail and quashing of criminal proceedings against him in the Jalgaon housing scam. Former Union law minister SalmanKhurshid represented Jain in the SC before a three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice HL Dattu. The court did not accept Jain’s plea that prior sanction was required for his prosecution as he was an MLA when accused in the case.
Jain is an accused in an alleged housing scheme scam worth about Rs 110 crore dating back to 1997. He has been in custody since his arrest in 2012 in Jalgaon and in judicial custody from July 2012 but been on bail on medical grounds from March to July 2013. The Aurangabad bench of the Bombay high court (HC), whose order Jain had challenged, had held that an MLA could not be treated as a public servant like an MP.
The HC order of October had relied on an earlier SC order that said: “It is not part of the duty of a public servant while discharging his official duty to enter into criminal conspiracy or indulge in criminal misconduct and so, prior government sanction under section 197 of Criminal Procedure Code is not necessary.”