Supreme Court cancels bail granted to DHFL promoter Kapil Wadhawan in loan scam case

The Supreme Court today cancelled the bail granted to former DHFL promoters Kapil Wadhawan and his brother Dheeraj Wadhawan in the multi-crore rupees bank loan scam case.

A bench comprising Justice Bela M Trivedi and Justice S C Sharma said the high court and the trial court committed error in granting bail to them. The bench remarked that they have no hesitation that the charge sheet having been filed and cognisance being taken in due time, respondents could not have claimed statutory bail as a right. 

Notably, under the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), an accused becomes entitled for grant of statutory bail if the probe agency fails to file the charge sheet on conclusion of the investigation in a criminal case within 60 or 90 days period.

In this particular case, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) filed the charge sheet on the 88th day after registration of the FIR and the trial court granted default bail to the accused and the Delhi High Court upheld the order.

Kapil Wadhawan and Dheeraj Wadhawan were arrested in this case on July 19 last year. The Delhi High Court, however, had clarified it did not go into the merits of the case while granting bail. The charge sheet was lodged on October 15, 2022 and cognisance was taken. The FIR in the case was lodged on the grounds of a complaint made by the Union Bank of India.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) in a statement issued earlier stated that the investigation against the Wadhawans pertains to cheating a consortium of 17 banks to the tune of Rs 34,615 crore. Reportedly, the money laundering case stems from a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) FIR.

The directors of DHFL, Kapil Wadhawan and Dheeraj Wadhawan and other accused persons entered into a criminal conspiracy to cheat the consortium of banks led by Union Bank of India (UBI). The ED stated that in pursuance of the said conspiracy, Kapil Wadhawan and others induced the consortium banks to sanction huge loans aggregating to Rs 42,871.42 crore. 

Reports stated that it was found that the accused persons siphoned off and misappropriated a significant portion of the said funds by falsifying the books of the DHFL and dishonestly defaulted on repayment of the legitimate dues of the said consortium banks, causing a loss of Rs 34,615 crore to the consortium lenders.

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