Punjab & Haryana High Court rejects DLF plea to cancel its former CFO's bail in extortion case

The Punjab and Haryana High Court on Friday rejected DLF Limited's plea seeking cancellation of the bail granted to its former Group Chief Financial Officer Ramesh Sanka in an extortion case in which he made threats to leak the company's confidential data [DLF Limited v. State of Haryana and Another]

Justice Vikram Aggarwal disagreed with DLF's claim that Sanka violated his bail conditions by leaking confidential company data in petitions filed by him before the Supreme Court, the Delhi High Court, the Telangana High Court and the Madras High Court.

The Court noted that he had resorted to only instituting certain petitions alleging evasion of tax and other violations by DLF.

"In the considered opinion of this Court, resorting to legal remedies cannot, by any stretch of imagination, be said to be an act which may be termed to be a violation of the conditions of bail or which may amount to inducing, threatening, intimidating or influencing the petitioner and/or the prosecution witnesses," the Bench said.

The Court also commented on Sanka's credentials, stating that he appears to have the tendencies of a blackmailer.

"He for sure, is not a saint. On account of that, the FIR in question stands registered against him. He was incarcerated for 11 months before being bailed out," it noted.

However, the Bench also emphasised that he is yet to be put to trial and that his petitions shall be tried by the courts of competent jurisdiction.

"No opinion can be formed at this stage as regards the veracity of the allegations in the FIR got registered by the petitioner against respondent No.2 or the cases instituted by respondent No.2 against the petitioner," it added.

Sanka was appointed as DLF's Chief Financial Officer in 2004 and subsequently made the Group Chief Financial Officer. He was later elevated to the position of Managing Director of DLF Cyber City Developers Limited and remained with the company till 2014.

In 2024, DLF registered a criminal case against him. The company alleged that Sanka started blackmailing it by threatening to misuse or leak its confidential data with a view to extorting a sum of ₹311 crore.

Sanka was arrested in January 2025 and granted bail in December 2025. Around a month later, DLF moved the High Court with a petition seeking cancellation of his bail.

In its petition, DLF alleged that he instituted petitions across different courts in which he was leaking confidential information with a view to influence, threaten and intimidate the company and prosecution witnesses.

While dismissing the plea, the Court said that cancellation of bail is a very drastic measure and cannot and should not be resorted to in a mechanical manner.

"Having considered the matter in its entirety and having gone through the contents of the FIR and the order dated 09.12.2025 granting bail to the petitioner, the petitions instituted by respondent No.2 and the arguments addressed by learned Senior Counsel for the parties, this Court does not find it to be a case of cancellation of bail granted to respondent No.2, at this stage," the Court ruled.

Senior Advocates RS Cheema, RS Rai and Rajeev Anand with advocates Kartikeya, Radhika Mehta, Satish Sharma, Farhad Kohli and Prince Bharol represented DLF.

Additional Advocate General Deepak Sabherwal represented the State of Haryana.

Senior Advocate Ashok Aggarwal with advocates Nilesh Bhardwaj, Shrenik Jain, Vineet Sehgal and Haripal represented Sanka.

[Read Order]