The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on August 27 moved the Supreme Court (SC) against the Bombay High Court order granting bail to Dewan Housing Finance (DHFL) promoters Kapil Wadhawan and Dheeraj in the Yes Bank case.
The ED has filed a Special Leave Petition (SLP) in the SC.
The Bombay High Court had last week granted bail to the two, who are the main accused in the case.
They were granted bail by Justice Bharati Dangre, citing the issue of late filing of chargesheet by the ED. A chargesheet had to be filed within 60 days of the arrest.
The ED, however, insisted that it had filed part of the chargesheet by email a day before the 60-day period ended. The ED arrested the Wadhawan brothers on May 14.
Despite the reprieve, the Wadhawans are still behind bars as they are in the custody of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in the same case.
An ED source told Moneycontrol: “The ED had filed part of the chargesheet on July 11 via e-mail, a day before the completion of 60 days. Actually, 60 days were completed on July 12, a Sunday. The main chargesheet was filed on July 13.”
Different interpretationAn ED lawyer had earlier told Moneycontrol: “The Bombay High Court went by the precedent set by a July 29 order of another Bench of the same court. The precedent held that the stipulated 60 days for submission of a chargesheet begin from the day an arrested accused is produced for remand. Until now, the practice was to exclude the day of the grant of remand from the count of 60 days.”
However, another source told Moneycontrol: “SC ruling in two different cases, Rustom and Ravi Prakash, respectively, clearly states that the date of remand has to be excluded while calculating the 60/90 days for filing a chargesheet.”
The ED chargesheet names 19 people, including the co-founder of Yes Bank Rana Kapoor, his wife Bindu Kapoor, daughters Rakhee, Roshni and Radha, and the entities Morgan Credit Pvt, Yes India Capital, Dheeraj Wadhawan, Kapil Wadhawan and their related companies.
The crimeAccording to the prosecution, Rana Kapoor, his family members and the other accused made fraudulent deals and laundered the proceeds, estimated to be worth Rs 5,050 crore.
Members of the Kapoor family or family-owned entities allegedly received Rs 600 crore in kickbacks in lieu of extending loans through Yes Bank, which later turned into non-performing assets. The amount was allegedly utilised to procure more properties.
In July, the ED provisionally attached properties worth Rs 2,400 crore belonging Rana Kapoor and the Wadhawan brothers.
Kapoor’s attached properties are located in South Mumbai, 40 Amrit Shergill Marg in Delhi, London and New York.
Wadhawan’s properties are in Mumbai, Pune, Australia and London.
