Delhi Court to frame charges in Jain Hawala case on March 19

New Delhi, Feb 15 (UNI) Sixteen years after the registration of the Jain hawala case allegedly involving many top politicians, a Delhi Court has said that there was enough evidence against the prime accused to prosecute them under the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act (FERA) for possession of foreign exchange without the permission of the RBI.

In an extensive order, Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (ACMM) Kamini Lau said there was enough evidence to prosecute S K Jain and his employee J K Jain, under various sections of the FERA for possessing foreign exchange without the mandetory permission of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

Dr Lau fixed March 19, 2007 for framing the charges against the accused.

The Jain Hawala case, which had rocked the nation during the P V Narshimha Rao regime, had been pending at trial stage since the raid by the Cental Bureau of Investigation (CBI) at the residential premises of S K Jain on May 3, 1991.

The case was transferred to the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in 1995 as the accused were involved in possession of a large amount of foreign currency including dollars, pounds and DM.

Counsel Navin Matta appearing for the ED submitted that the accused did not give any document from the RBI to substantiate the possession of the foreign exchange with them.

During the interrogation, accused J K Jain allegedly said that the foreign exchange belonged to his employeer S K Jain.

The prosecution had examined four witnesses during the trial to prove that the foreign currencies were illegally possesed by the accused through hawala route.

UNI