Supreme Court cancels statutory bail of DHFL’s Kapil Wadhawan, Dheeraj Wadhawan

The Supreme Court of India has on January 24 cancelled the statutory bail of former DHFL promoters Kapil Wadhawan and Dheeraj Wadhawan, accused in a multi-crore rupees bank loan scam case, had their bail cancelled by the Supreme Court on Wednesday.

A bench comprising Justices Bela M Trivedi and S C Sharma stated that both the high court and the trial court made an error in granting bail to the Wadhawan brothers.

"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. HC and the lower court greatly erred. Trial court to hear afresh on regular bail. Appeals are allowed accordingly," the bench said.

The Supreme Court emphasised that, given the timely filing of the charge sheet and the taken cognisance, the respondents could not assert statutory bail as a right.

According to the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), an accused is entitled to statutory bail if the investigating agency fails to file a charge sheet within 60 or 90 days, depending on the case. In this instance, the CBI submitted the charge sheet on the 88th day after the FIR's registration. Subsequently, the trial court granted default bail, a decision upheld by the Delhi High Court.

The Wadhawan brothers were arrested on July 19 last year in connection with the case. While the high court clarified it did not delve into the case's merits, the charge sheet was filed on October 15, 2022, with due cognisance.

The case originated from a complaint filed by the Union Bank of India, leading to the FIR in question. The Wadhawans are accused in a ₹34,615-crore bank fraud case. Both are facing various cases of alleged cheating and fraud. 

Kapil Wadhawan was the Chairman and MD of DHFL, while Dheeraj Wadhawan is the brother of Kapil and was a non-executive director in the company. Both of them were on the board of DHFL.

As many as seven cops were arrested in August 2023 for providing special treatment to the Wadhawan brothers after a TV channel showed clips of them enjoying various privileges in the guise of medical check-ups at government hospitals in Mumbai while being in judicial custody.

(With inputs from PTI)