Supreme Court on
Wednesday cancelled the bail granted to former DHFL promoters Kapil Wadhawan
and his brother Dheeraj Wadhawan in the multi-crore Yes Bank-DHFL loan
scam.
During the
hearing, a bench of Justices Bela M Trivedi and S C Sharma said the Delhi High
Court and the trial court "greatly erred" in granting bail to the
brothers, who are accused in Rs 34,615-crore bank fraud case.
"We have no
hesitation that the charge sheet having been filed and cognisance being taken
in due time, respondents could not have claimed statutory bail as a right. [The
high court] HC and lower court greatly erred," Justice Bela M Trivedi said
while delivering the judgment.
The bench further
said that the trial court would hear afresh on the brothers' regular bail, and
appeals should be granted accordingly.
Under the Code of
Criminal Procedure (CrPC), an accused is entitled for grant of statutory bail
if the investigative agency fails to file the charge sheet within 60 or 90 days
of the conclusion of the inquiry.
In the case of
the Wadhawan brothers, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) filed the
charge sheet on the 88th day after filing the first FIR, as required by law.
However, the trial judge granted the accused default bail, and the judgment was
stayed by the Delhi High judge in December.
The Wadhawan
brothers were arrested in the multi-crore scam on July 19 last year. The high
court, however, had clarified that it did not go into the merits of the case.
The charge sheet
in the matter was filed on October 15, 2022 and cognisance was taken. In this
case, the FIR was based on a complaint filed by the Union Bank of India.