A magistrate court on Friday rejected the bail pleas filed on merit by Kapil Wadhawan and Dheeraj Wadhawan, promoters of Dewan Housing Finance Limited (DHFL), in the Yes Bank fraud case.
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The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in its FIR had claimed that Yes Bank had invested ₹3,700 crore in short-term debentures of DHFL between April and June 2018 for which the Wadhawans allegedly gave a kickback of ₹600 crore to bank’s former CEO and managing director Rana Kapoor in the form of loans to DoIT Urban Ventures (India) Pvt. Ltd., a company registered in the name of Mr. Kapoor’s daughters.
The CBI had obtained a non-bailable warrant against the duo on March 17, 2020, but they were not arrested. On April 9, the Wadhawans, who were out on bail, along with a group of 23 people flouted lockdown rules and travelled to Mahabaleshwar from Khandala after a senior IPS officer in the Maharashtra Home Department issued a letter allowing them to travel. Following an uproar, the Wadhawan brothers on April 18 had got interim relief from arrest after their lawyer pleaded that the two should not be arrested in the middle of the pandemic.
Seeking bail, their advocate had argued that the entire case was based on banking transactions and money trail, documents of which were available to the agency.
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On April 11, 2020, the Bombay High Court had rejected their default bail pleas. Justice S.V. Kotwal had said, “The real victims were the depositors and shareholders; particularly of Yes Bank. That amount was not utilised for getting profits for Yes Bank, but it was used for personal gains of the accused. Thus, clearly offence under Section 409 (criminal breach of trust by public servant, or by banker, merchant or agent) of the Indian Penal Code is made out. The ingredients of this offence are clearly borne out in the report filed before the special CBI court.”