Kapil Wadhawan and Brother Denied Bail by Bombay High Court
Bombay:
The Bombay High Court on Wednesday rejected the bail applications of Kapil and Dheeraj Wadhawan, promoters of Dewan Housing Finance Limited (DHFL), in the Yes Bank fraud case, saying the procedures had been followed when ‘a charge sheet had been filed.
Judge SV Kotwal rejected arguments made by lawyers for the Wadhawan brothers, senior lawyers Amit Desai and AM Singhvi, that the CBI did not follow the process when filing a charge sheet in the case .
The Wadhawans had asked for a ‘default bond’, claiming that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), the prosecution, had violated the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) by filing an indictment in a special court of CBI in Mumbai.
A default bond is granted when procedural aspects, such as filing a charge sheet within the time limit, are not met.
Lawyer Desai had argued that under the CRPC, a court can only see a charge sheet if the investigation report is complete.
In the present case, the CBI investigation report was not complete and yet the court had seen it, he said.
The investigation report was not even submitted to the court, but was filed with the court registry, he argued.
Attorney Singhvi had argued that the CBI later added the offense of criminal breach of trust under the Indian Penal Code and not when registering the FIR.
It was a “subterfuge”, he argued.
Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Anil Singh, who appeared for the CBI, objected to the bail requests, saying the CBI had followed all procedures.
If there were any deviations from the procedure, they took place due to the coronavirus pandemic situation, during which the court took precautionary measures for the processing of documents, said the ASG .
Accepting the arguments of the central agency, Judge Kotwal found that the investigation report “complied with all the requirements of the law and was therefore an appropriate report”.
Filing the report at the registry was not illegal, the judge added.
“Since the report required under Article 173 of the CrPC was filed on time, the right to request default bond was never acquired in favor of the plaintiffs (Wadhawans),” said the High Court.
According to the FIR recorded in the case by the CBI, Yes Bank invested Rs 3,700 crore in short-term DHFL debentures between April and June 2018, for which the Wadhawans allegedly gave a bribe of Rs 600 crore to the CEO of the bank at the time and to management. Director Rana Kapoor.
These bribes were in the form of a loan to a company registered in the name of Rana Kapoor’s daughters, he said.
(Except for the title, this story was not edited by GalacticGaming staff and is posted from a syndicated feed.)
