Bombay HC Dismissed Bail Pleas of Wadhawan Brothers in Yes Bank Scam Case

Bombay HC Dismissed Bail Pleas of Wadhawan Brothers in Yes Bank Scam Case

Bombay High Court on Wednesday rejected the bail pleas which were filed by Kapil Wadhawan and Dheeraj Wadhawan promoters of Dewan Housing Finance Ltd (DHFL), in the matter of Yes Bank Fraud Case.

On October 23, a single judge bench, Hon'ble Justice S.V. Kotwal had reserved his order on their bail pleas. The Wadhawan Brother had approached the high court to seek default bail and claimed that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), the suing authority in the case, had not compiled with the procedural requirements under the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPc) during the filing of the charge sheet before the special CBI court in the city.

Appearing on behalf of the Wadhawan Brother, Senior Advocate Amit Desai contended that the CBI had not complied with the procedures mentioned under Section 173 of CrPC, while submitting its investigation report before the special magistrate.

Advocate stated that, at that time as per Section 173, court could take cognizance of the only if the investigation was completed. He added, "If the report is not complete, then how can the court take cognizance, and consequently, how can the provision be considered complied with?"

Therefore, he argued that the CBI's report was not complete and yet the court went ahead to take cognisance, hence his client deserved to be released through default bail, since the statutory period for filing the charge sheet was not complied. He further added, that the custodial inquiry of the Wadhawan brothers was not needed in the case.

Senior Advocate Dr. Abhishek Manu Singhvi in his brief's submissions clarified that the statutory bail is a vital liberty and an indefeasible right, which the judges have discretion to consider. He also noted, that the charge sheet filed did not provide adequate evidence so as to prove all the charges alleged against them.

"If your lordships have a charge sheet with no ingredients but only offences, then use personal liberty to lean in favour of accused. Filing of charge sheet within statutory bail time limit before the wrong forum and then refiling beyond time before the right forum actually ripens the indefeasible right to default bail.", Singhvi urged the Court.

Appearing on behalf of the CBI, Additional Solicitor General Anil Singh, expressed and opposed to the bail applications, stating that the CBI had correctly followed all due procedures and compliances. Any change in the filing procedure of the charge sheet was kept in view of the pandemic situation, during which the court had taken precautionary measures before handling documents.

He placed his reliance upon the order of the CBI Court rejecting the bail of the brothers to submit that the Court had heard all submissions of the brothers. He added that submissions pertaining to the procedure under Section 173 were not even submitted before the Special CBI Court.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) had also pursued custody of the Wadhawan brothers for probe into the Yes Bank scam. According to the FIR registered in the case by the CBI, Yes Bank invested ₹3,700 crore in short-term debentures of DHFL between April and June 2018 for which the Wadhawans allegedly gave ₹600 crore as an illicit payment to the former CEO and managing director Rana Kapoor. These illicit payments were in the form of loan a company registered in the name of Kapoor's daughters.