The Bombay High Court  rejected the bail pleas filed by Kapil and Dheeraj Wadhawan, promoters of Dewan Housing Finance Ltd (DHFL), in the Yes Bank fraud case. A single bench presided over by Justice S V Kotwal had reserved his order on their bail pleas on October 23.

The Wadhawan brothers had approached the high court, seeking default bail, claiming that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), the prosecuting agency in the case, had not complied with the procedural requirements under the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) while filing the charge sheet before the special CBI court in the city.

Senior advocate Amit Desai, who appeared for the Wadhawans, had argued that the CBI had not complied with the procedure under Section 173 CrPC while submitting its investigation report before the special magistrate.

Desai had said at the time that as per section 173, a court could take cognisance of the charge sheet only if the probe was complete.
In the present case, the CBI’s probe report was not complete and yet the court has taken cognizance, therefore, his client deserved to be let out in default bail, Desai had said. He had also said that the custodial inquiry of the Wadhawan brothers was not required in the case.

Additional Solicitor General Anil Singh, who appeared for the CBI, had opposed the bail applications saying that the CBI had followed all procedures and compliances. Singh had said that if there had been any changes in the filing procedure of the charge sheet, they had occurred in view of the pandemic situation, during which the court had taken precautionary measures before handling documents.

As per the FIR registered in the case by the CBI, Yes Bank invested Rs 3,700 crore in short-term debentures of DHFL between April and June 2018 for which the Wadhawans allegedly gave Rs 600 crore kickback to the former CEO and managing director Rana Kapoor. These kickbacks were in the form of a loan a company registered in the name of Kapoor’s daughters.