The special court for the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), on Saturday, rejected the bail plea of Kapil and Dheeraj Wadhawan of Dewan Housing Finance Ltd (DHFL). The brothers had sought bail on the ground that they have already undergone half of their jail sentence since May 14, 2022 for the alleged DHF-Yes Bank money laundering case. The court said the duo cannot avail the benefit as they kept their bail plea pending for more than a year, delaying the trial.
The Wadhawan brothers claimed they were arrested in connection with the money laundering case registered against Yes bank founder Rana Kapoor, and they have spent half of the maximum seven-year sentence for the offence of money laundering under the PMLA without trial.
The plea was opposed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED), saying that the delay was caused by the accused themselves as they kept pursuing various pleas and bail applications. “The applicants were quite aware that once the charge is framed, trial begins and there is no likelihood of their release on bail. Hence, several rounds of bail applications are going on for which the accused are responsible,” the ED said.
Special judge MG Deshpande said that both Dheeraj and Kapil filed their bail pleas in March and April 2022 and kept them pending for a very long time. Within a month of the main bail plea, Dheeraj moved a plea of bail on medical grounds on April 28, 2022. Besides, they pursued the plea of default bail – on the ground of alleged delay in filing prosecution – up to the Supreme court, keeping the main bail pleas pending for hearing, “but never took active steps to argue their applications”. The court has further noted that every attempt was made to keep their bail pleas filed in 2022 pending till it was rejected on May 10, 2023.
The court remarked, “The accused files bail application as of right and strategically keeps the same pending for an uncertain period; a long period of one year, can it be held that he is exercising his constitutional right of bail?” Hence the court refused to consider the said period of one year while calculating the period spent in prison.
