The bail applications of Dewan Housing Finance Corporation Limited (DHFL) promoters Kapil Wadhawan and Dheeraj Wadhawan were on Monday rejected by a special Central Bureau of Investigation court in the Yes Bank scam case.
Earlier, their pleas were rejected by a magistrate court on January 8 to which the case had been transferred in July last year at the stage of taking cognisance. It had been transferred as the CBI had not secured the necessary sanctions required to prosecute public servants in cases under the Prevention of Corruption Act (PCA).
On January 13, the duo had approached the CBI court for bail. In their bail pleas, the brothers had told the court that the debentures for investment in which by Yes Bank they had allegedly paid bribe to its ex-CEO Rana Kapoor, were oversubscribed by over 2.73 times. DHFL, they said, did not need Yes Bank’s money and had many eager investors. Further, their plea stated that, until today, CBI has not managed to secure sanction to prosecute the duo under the PCA and, hence, that they cannot be charged under it.
In the order rejecting their bail pleas, magistrate ST Dande had said that prima-facie, there was irregularity in the granting of loan and how the mortgaged property was not sufficient to cover the loan. The court had stated further that the alleged offence is classified as ‘most serious economic offence’ and needs to be viewed seriously.
The brothers are also facing an Enforcement Directorate (ED) case in the same matter. It is the CBI’s case that, in a criminal conspiracy hatched by the accused, Yes Bank had invested Rs 3,700 crore in DHFL in short-term debentures for which the Wadhawans had paid a kickback of Rs 600 crore to Rana Kapoor in the form of a builder loan to a company owned by his daughter Roshini. This loan was allegedly sanctioned with substandard collateral of meagre value. DHFL has not redeemed the amount of Rs 3,700 crore.
