A special court, in its detailed order denying bail to Housing Development Infrastructure Limited (HDIL) promoter Sarang Wadhawan recently, has said that granting bail to him in an economic offence of this nature would be against the larger interest of the public and state as it involves criminal misappropriation and cheating of a large amount of public money.
Sarang with his father Rakesh Wadhawan and others are accused of cheating the Punjab and Maharashtra Cooperative Bank (PMC) of Rs 4,355 crore.
The special court under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) said that the crime was committed in a cool, calculated and organised manner causing a wrongful loss of crores to the bank and all his actions show criminal conspiracy with all other accused.
One of the grounds on which Sarang has sought bail was that there is no possibility of the trial beginning or concluding soon considering the voluminous records and the number of witnesses in the case. Special judge MG Deshpande said in his order that right from the beginning till date, both Sarang and his father Rakesh have filed many bail applications and other proceedings in respect of medical aid to the senior Wadhawan which have in fact stalled the trial. “Total time consumed in bail applications itself is self-demonstrating and indicates that trial was not delayed due to any fault on the part of the court, but these are the applicants who filed bail applications in a hope of bail,” Judge Deshpande said. Therefore, the court said that their contention that since two years they are behind bars cannot be capitalised upon.
Sarang had claimed a change of circumstances for being granted bail as arbitration proceedings were initiated by the bank against them.
The court said merely because arbitration proceedings are going on cannot be a change in circumstance for grant of bail, it stated.