May 10th, 2020: A Special Court appointed in Mumbai rejected the interim bail plea filed by the DHFL promoter Kapil Wadhawan and his brother Dheeraj Wadhawan who were arrested in connection with the Yes Bank Scam and sent to judicial custody.
The CBI Custody of the brothers ended on May 10th, 2020 and they were presented before the court where they applied for a temporary bail citing health reasons and risks.
The lawyer on behalf of the Wadhawans’ argued that they are most likely and susceptible to contracting coronavirus infection due to their past health issues. Further, he stated that since Arthur Road Jail has reported certain cases of coronavirus a, it would pose a great threat to their health and that it would be in their interest that they get bail.
Contending further, he argued that the “right to health is one of the integral aspects of the right to life. Therefore, they should be granted interim bail.” The court on perusal of the arguments advance, however, denied the said bail application. The Arthur Road Jail has recorded about 77 cases of inmates testing positive for coronavirus in Mumbai.
50 days after the CBI booked them in the case of alleged bribery also including Yes Bank CEO Rana Kapoor, the Wadhawan brothers were arrested from a quarantine-based facility near Mahabaleshwar. The pair have additionally been accused in the CBI FIR which pertains to alleged swindling of money by Rana Kapoor and others.
The agency alleged that Kapoor entered into a criminal conspiracy with the two brothers for extending financial assistance to DHFL through Yes Bank and in return gain substantial undue benefits for himself and his family members through the companies held by them. According to reports issued by CBI, the scam had started taking place between April and June 2018 when Yes Bank had invested about Rs. 3,700 crore in short-term debentures of the scam-hit Dewan Housing Finance Corporation Ltd (DHFL).
The Wadhawan brothers in return had paid a whopping amount of 600 crores to Kapoor and his family members in the form of loans to DoIT Urban Ventures (India) Pvt Ltd which was held by the wife and daughters of Rana Kapoor. Leaving aside the CBI, the brothers are also being probed separately over their connection in the Yes Bank Scam by the Enforcement Directorate.
