In a relief for promoters of Housing Development and Infrastructure Limited (HDIL) Rakesh Wadhawan and Sarang Wadhawan, the Bombay High Court on Friday granted them bail in the cases registered against them by the Directorate of Enforcement (ED) and the Economic Offence Wing (EOW) of the Mumbai police in connection with the Punjab and Maharashtra Co-operative (PMC) Bank fraud case.
Justice SM Modak has directed their release on furnishing sureties of Rs5 lakh each in both the cases.
The HC was hearing a plea filed by the duo seeking bail after the same was refused by the special PMLA (Prevention of Money Laundering Act) court. They were arrested in the case on October 17, 2019.
Legal Arguments In Bail Plea For Rakesh And Sarang Wadhawan
Rakesh Wadhawan and his son Sarang face allegations of fraudulently obtaining loans of Rs 2,558 crore from PMC Bank and failing to repay the due amount of Rs. 4,435 crores including interest.
Advocates for Rakesh Wadhawan, Harshad Nimbalkar, Hrishikesh Chitaley, Ashish Verma and Sagar Shetty said that the maximum punishment under the PMLA, if found guilty, is seven years in prison. Hence, they have been incarcerated for nearly 4.5 years, which is more than half of the prison sentence.
As per the amended Section 436A of the PMLA, if an under-trial prisoner has been detained for a period lasting up to one-half of the maximum period of the imprisonment provided for the alleged crime, he should be released on bail by providing personal bond, with or without sureties, Wadhawan claimed.
Sarang was represented by Aabad Ponda and Subhash Jadhav.
ED's Opposition And Additional Charges Against Wadhawans in PMC Bank Fraud Case
The ED opposed their plea contending that it had registered three other offences of alleged money laundering against Wadhawans after this case.
They were booked in alleged fraud related to the redevelopment of Patra Chawl in Goregaon and in a case connected with a loan taken from Yes Bank.
The EOW, on September 30, 2019, registered an offence in connection with the alleged fraud at the multi-state cooperative bank having 137 branches in six states.
According to the RBI, PMC Bank had masked 44 problematic loan accountsinvolving advances to the tune of Rs7,457.49 crore, majority of which was extended to HDIL, by tampering with its core banking system, and the accounts were accessible only to limited staff members.
