DHFL Bank Loan Scam: Supreme Court Cancels Bail Granted To Wadhawan Brothers
In July 2022, the CBI booked the Wadhawan brothers in a Rs 34,615 crore bank loan scam.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday cancelled the bail granted to former promoters of Dewan Housing Finance Ltd., Kapil Wadhawan and Dheeraj Wadhawan, in a multi-crore bank loan scam.
The top court said that the trial court and the Delhi High Court committed serious errors of law in granting bail to the Wadhawan brothers and held that they could not have claimed statutory right of a default bail.
Subsequently, the court has ordered that the Wadhawan brothers be taken into custody and directed the trial court to hear the matter afresh.
Under the Code of Criminal Procedure, an accused is entitled to statutory bail if the investigating agencies fail to file a charge sheet at the conclusion of an investigation, within a period of 60–90 days.
In this case, the CBI had filed a charge sheet 88 days after the FIR was registered.
However, the trial court granted statutory bail to the brothers, and the high court subsequently upheld the trial court's order last year.
We have no hesitation in saying that the charge sheet having been filed and cognisance being taken in due time, the Wadhawan brothers could not have claimed statutory right of a default bail, the apex court said.
In July 2022, the CBI booked the Wadhawan brothers in a Rs 34,615 crore bank loan scam.
The action came on a complaint from the Union Bank of India, leader of a 17-member lender consortium, which had extended credit facilities to the tune of Rs 42,871 crore between 2010 and 2018.
The bank had alleged that Kapil and Dheeraj Wadhawan, in criminal conspiracy with others, misrepresented and concealed facts, committed criminal breach of trust and abused public funds to cheat the consortium to the tune of Rs 34,615 crore by defaulting on loan repayments from May 2019 onwards.
