SC cancels bail granted to DHFL promoters Kapil, Dheeraj Wadhawan
DHFL promoters Kapil and Dheeraj Wadhawan have been accused of cheating a consortium of banks. The Supreme Court said the accused cannot claim default bail on the ground that the probe was still pending against the co-accused.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday cancelled the bail granted to Dewan Housing Finance Corporation Ltd (DHFL) promoters Kapil Wadhawan and Dheeraj Wadhawan who have been accused of cheating a consortium of banks after availing huge loans.
Deciding an appeal filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) against the Delhi High Court order which confirmed a trial court order granting them statutory bail, a Supreme Court bench of Justices Bela M Trivedi and Ujjal Bhuyan said the accused cannot claim default bail on the ground that the probe was still pending against the co-accused.
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The trial court granted the Wadhawans’ default bail on December 3, 2022, and this was upheld by the Delhi High Court on May 30, 2023. An accused becomes entitled to statutory bail if the investigating agency does not complete the probe within the stipulated time and files the chargesheet.
The high court while upholding the trial court order said that the chargesheet filed by the CBI in the case “is an incomplete/ piecemeal charge sheet and terming the same as a final report under section 173 (2) Cr.PC. merely to ruse the statutory and fundamental right of default bail to the accused shall negate the provision under Section 167 Cr. PC and will also be against the mandate of Article 21 of the Constitution of India”.
The Supreme Court, however, said, “We have no hesitation in holding that the charge-sheet having been filed against the respondent accused in the prescribed time limit and the cognizance had been taken by the special court of the offences alleged committed by them, the respondents could not have claimed the statutory right of default bail under Section 167 (2) of Cr.P.C. on the ground that the investigation for other accused was pending”.
The FIR in the case was registered on the complaint of the Union Bank of India which led the consortium of 17 banks. It alleged that the Wadhawans and others, in pursuance of a criminal conspiracy, induced the consortium to sanction huge loans aggregating over Rs 42,000 crore.
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