Dewan Housing Finance Corporation Limited (DHFL) promoters Kapil Wadhawan and Dheeraj Wadhawan, accused by the CBI in the Yes Bank scam case have approached a special CBI court after a magistrate court in the city rejected their bail pleas last week.
The brothers filed their bail pleas before the special CBI court on Tuesday. On Wednesday, it was the first hearing of the application. The court has asked the CBI to file its response to the plea.
In a bail plea filed through Rashmikant and Partners, the brothers have told the court that the debentures, for investment in which by Yes Bank they had allegedly paid a bribe to its ex-CEO Rana Kapoor, were oversubscribed by over 2.73 times. DHFL did not need Yes Bank’s money and had many eager investors, they have said. Further, until today the CBI has not managed to secure sanction to prosecute the duo under the Prevention of Corruption Act, and hence they cannot be charged under it.
In its order rejecting their bail pleas last week, magistrate ST Dande had said that prima-facie there was an irregularity in granting of the loan and how the mortgaged property was not sufficient to cover the loan. It stated that the alleged offence is classified as “most serious economic offence” and needs to be viewed seriously.
It is the CBI’s case that in a criminal conspiracy hatched by the accused, Yes Bank had invested Rs 3,700 crores in DHFL in short-term debentures for which the Wadhawans had paid a kickback of Rs 600 crores to Rana Kapoor in the form of a builder loan to a company owned by his daughter Roshini. The loan was allegedly sanctioned with substandard collateral of meagre value. DHFL has not redeemed the amount of Rs 3,700 crores.
