[Breaking] Yes Bank Scam: Bombay High Court denies bail to Wadhawan brothers

The Bombay High Court today denied bail to promoters of Dewan Housing Finance Limited (DHFL) Kapil and Dheeraj Wadhawan, accused in the Yes Bank money laundering case..An order to this effect was passed by a Single Judge Bench of Justice SV Kotwal, who had reserved the judgment on October 23 after hearing the four bail applications extensively for 3 days..The Wadhawan brothers had filed the applications for default bail claiming that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had not complied with the procedural requirements under the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) while filing the chargesheet before the Special CBI Court..Appearing for Kapil Wadhawan, Senior Advocate Amit Desai had submitted before the High Court that CBI had not complied with the procedure under Section 173 CrPC while submitting the report of the investigation to the Special Magistrate..He added that the requirements under Section 173 viz. submission of the required details and documents is considered to be complied with only after the Court takes cognizance of the report. He had argued,.“If the report is not complete, then how can the court take cognizance, and consequently, how can the provision be considered complied with?".Desai further contended that the report was not even submitted to the Court, but was filed in the Registry, which meant the requirement under Section 173 was not fulfilled. This in turn meant that the statutory period for filing the chargesheet had not been complied with..Senior Advocate Dr. Abhishek Manu Singhvi made brief submissions on the point that statutory bail is a vital liberty and an indefeasible right, which the judge has discretion to consider..He added that the chargesheet filed did not provide sufficient evidence to prove all the charges that were alleged..“If your lordships have a chargesheet with no ingredients but only offences, then use personal liberty to lean in favour of accused”, Singhvi urged the Court..He further submitted,"Filing of chargesheet within statutory bail time limit before the wrong forum and then refiling beyond time before the right forum actually ripens the indefeasible right to default bail.".Additional Solicitor General Anil Singh, appearing for the CBI, opposed these applications by pointing out that all procedures and compliances were followed by the CBI officials..He added that any change in the filing procedure of the chargesheet was in view of the pandemic situation, during which the Court had taken precautionary measures before handling documents..He relied upon the order of the CBI Court rejecting the bail of the brothers to submit that the Court had heard all submissions of the brothers. He added that submissions pertaining to the procedure under Section 173 were not even submitted before the Special CBI Court..The Enforcement Directorate (ED) had also sought custody of the Wadhawan brothers for investigation into the Yes Bank scam..The brother were, however, granted default bail by the Bombay High Court in the cases registered by ED in August. However, the Supreme Court subsequently stayed the bail order.