No bail for DHFL's Wadhawan brothers, SC turns down reprieve in big setback

The Supreme Court on Wednesday cancelled bail granted to former DHFL promoters Kapil Wadhawan and his brother Dheeraj in multi-crore rupees bank loan scam case.

A bench of Justices Bela M Trivedi and S C Sharma said the high court and the trial court committed error in granting bail to them. The apex court said the accused cannot seek statutory bail after the chargesheet in the case had been filed and taken cognizance of. 

The Delhi High court granted statutory bail to Wadhawans and in connection with a multi-crore rupees bank loan scam case on grounds that the Chargesheet was "incomplete" and "hurriedly filed" so as to not extend beyond the 90 day deadline to file chargesheets.

The court asked the lower court to hear the bail petition afresh. The Wadhawan brothers were arrested in this case on July 19 last year. The high court, however, had clarified it did not go into the merits of the case.

The probe against the Wadhawans is related to "cheating" a consortium of 17 banks to the tune of Rs 34,615 crore and the money laundering case stems from a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) FIR, ED said in a statement earlier. It was found that the accused "siphoned off and misappropriated" a significant portion of the said funds by "falsifying" the books of the DHFLs, causing a loss of Rs 34,615 crore to the consortium lenders.