New Delhi, Jan 24 (UNI) The Supreme Court on Wednesday set aside the Delhi High Court order granting statutory bail to former DHFL promoter Kapil Wadhawan and his brother for multi-crore bank fraud and directed that they be taken into custody forthwith.
A bench of Justice Bela M. Trivedi and Justice S. C. Sharma noted that the Delhi High Court as well as the lower court greatly erred in granting statutory bail.
Justice Bela M Trivedi said since the charge sheet has been filed and cognisance has been taken in due time, the respondents could not have claimed statutory bail as a right. The Apex Court directed that the accused be taken into custody immediately and directed the trial court to hear the regular bail application afresh.
A statutory bail is granted to an accused if the probe agency fails to file the charge sheet on the conclusion of the investigation in a criminal case within a stipulated period of 60 or 90 days. Then Under the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), an accused becomes entitled to a grant of statutory bail.
But in this case, the CBI filed the charge sheet on the 88th day after the registration of the FIR, and the trial court granted default bail to the accused. The Delhi High Court upheld the trial court order but clarified that it did not go into the merits of the case.
The Wadhawan brothers were arrested on July 19 in 2023. The charge sheet was filed on October 15, 2022, and cognizance was taken.
The FIR in the case was based on a complaint made by the Union Bank of India. Both are accused in a Rs 34,615 crore bank loan fraud case.
