A special court that rejected the bail plea of a senior executive of Yes Bank, has said in its detailed order that his responsibility was higher, to protect the interest of the bank, instead of on the insistence of co-accused, to act against it.
The former Group Executive, Vice President of the bank Mahesh Varakh had claimed that he was one of the junior officers in the team and was only implementing the decision of the managing committee as per the directions of superiors including the former MD and CEO of the bank Rana Kapoor and Rajiv Anand, the then Group President and Business Head of the bank. It was in this context that the court made the remark.
Kapoor and his family members, directors of Dewan Housing Finance Corporation Limited (DHFL) Kapil Wadhawan and Dheeraj Wadhawan are the Varakh’s co-accused in the case. The court had taken him in custody after the agency had filed a supplementary chargesheet in the case. The court had summoned him after taking cognizance of it and taken him in custody then. The agency has alleged that though he was not a beneficiary of the crime, he had acted in conspiracy with co-accused and sanctioned a loan of Rs. 750 crores to a company controlled by the Wadhawans, by ignoring objections raised against doing so. It also alleged that he had not verified the utilization of the loan amount.
Special CBI judge SU Wadgaonkar said in his order while rejecting the application, “Applicant being the employee of Yes Bank involved in the commission of the crime with fraudulent and dishonest intention to allow wrongful loss to Yes Bank. Though he is not the beneficiary of the crime proceeds, he…allowed wrongful gain to the co-accused by causing wrongful loss to Yes Bank, with whom he was working as a public servant and getting attractive salary and other perks.”
