DHFL Loan Scam Case: HC Asks CBI To File Status Report On Kapil Wadhawan's Bail Plea

The Delhi High Court on Monday asked the CBI to file a status report on a plea by Dewan Housing Finance Ltd's former promoter Kapil Wadhawan seeking bail in the multi-crore rupees bank loan scam case.

Justice Chandra Dhari Singh asked the CBI to file within 10 days its status report on various aspects, including its objections raised on the maintainability of the petition.

The court listed the matter for further hearing on November 7.

During the hearing, Wadhawan's counsel submitted that the case was lodged by the CBI in 2022 and he has been in custody for around 600 days.

The counsel said Wadhawan is the only accused in custody in the case and recently the co-accused was also granted bail.

The CBI counsel raised a preliminary objection to the plea and said the accused has directly approached the high court and has not filed the bail application in the trial court.

"He is straightaway coming to the high court bypassing the trial court," the CBI counsel contended.

To this, Wadhawan's lawyer submitted that he has directly approached the high court as it has a concurrent jurisdiction to deal with the plea.

He said the accused was earlier granted default bail by the trial court which was upheld by the high court. But the Supreme Court cancelled it.

Under the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), an accused becomes entitled to grant of statutory (default) bail if the probe agency fails to file the charge sheet on conclusion of the investigation in a criminal case within 60 or 90 days.

In this case, the CBI filed the charge sheet on the 88th day after registration of the FIR.

The Wadhawan brothers -- Kapil and Dheeraj -- were arrested in this case on July 19, 2022.

The charge sheet was filed by the CBI on October 15, 2022 and cognisance was taken by the trial court.

The FIR in the case was based on a complaint made by the Union Bank of India.

The CBI has alleged in the FIR that Dewan Housing Finance Ltd (DHFL), its then CMD Kapil Wadhawan, then Director Dheeraj Wadhawan and other accused persons entered into a criminal conspiracy to cheat the consortium of 17 banks led by the Union Bank of India. The accused and others induced the consortium to sanction huge loans aggregating Rs 42,871.42 crore.

Much of that amount was allegedly siphoned off and misappropriated by alleged falsification of the books of the DHFL and dishonest default in repayment of the legitimate dues of the consortium banks, the CBI claimed.

The complainant alleged that a wrongful loss of Rs 34,615 crore was caused to the consortium banks in as much as such was the quantification of the outstanding dues as on July 31, 2020.