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The Supreme Court on Wednesday set aside a Delhi High Court order granting statutory bail to former Dewan Housing Finance Ltd (DHFL) promoters Kapil Wadhawan and his brother Dheeraj Wadhawan, in connection with a multi-crore rupees bank loan scam case.
A bench of Justices Bela Trivedi and Ujjal Bhuyan cancelled the bail granted to the Wadhawan brothers. It said that the High Court and trial court had erred in providing default bail to the Wadhawans. "We have no hesitation that the chargesheet having been filed and cognisance being taken in due time, respondents could not have claimed statutory bail as a right. High Court and lower court greatly erred. Trial court to hear afresh on regular bail. Appeals allowed accordingly," the bench said while pronouncing the order. The top court set aside the findings of the High Court and the trial court, saying that the Wadhawan brothers cannot claim the statutory right of default bail on the ground that the investigation is pending against the other accused. The apex court allowed the appeal filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) against bail granted to them. Under the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), an accused becomes entitled to a grant of statutory bail if the probe agency fails to file the charge sheet on the conclusion of the investigation in a criminal case within 60 or 90 days period. In this case, CBI had filed the chargesheet on the 88th day after registration of the FIR and the trial court granted default bail to them and the Delhi High Court upheld the order. The charge sheet was filed on October 15, 2022, and cognisance was taken. The trial court had granted bail to them noting that the charge sheet filed by the CBI was incomplete. On July 19 last year, they were arrested in relation to the case. The FIR in the case was based on a complaint made by the Union Bank of India. (ANI)
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