The Supreme Court on Friday directed the Delhi High Court to decide within two weeks the bail plea of Kapil Wadhawan, former promoter of Dewan Housing Finance Ltd, in the multi-crore bank fraud case being probed by the CBI.
A vacation bench of Justices Ujjal Bhuyan and Manmohan noted that Wadhawan has been in custody since July 2022 and that his bail plea, scheduled for hearing on July 18, had been repeatedly adjourned. Wadhawan had approached the apex court seeking swift disposal of his petition due to the prolonged custody and delays.
The court was also informed that while Kapil and his brother Dheeraj Wadhawan were arrested on July 19, 2022, Dheeraj was granted interim bail on medical grounds on September 9, 2024.
On October 15, 2022, the CBI had filed the chargesheet 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.
According to the CBI FIR, Dewan Housing Finance Ltd (DHFL), its then CMD Kapil Wadhawan, then director Dheeraj Wadhawan and other accused persons conspired to cheat the consortium of 17 banks led by the Union Bank of India.
CBI alleged that the accused and others induced the consortium to sanction huge loans aggregating Rs42,871.42 crore.
As per the complainant 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.
(Inputs from agencies)
