Today, On 5th May, The Delhi High Court sought a status report regarding the bail application of Dheeraj Wadhawan. The court’s directive comes in response to Wadhawan’s plea for bail, which has been pending.
New Delhi: The Delhi High Court, on Wednesday requested a status report concerning the bail plea of Dheeraj Wadhawan, who seeking bail due to medical reasons.
The trial court previously denied his bail request. Justice Vikas Mahajan, presiding over the vacation bench, instructed the CBI to submit a status report on the matter and scheduled the hearing for June 10.
Senior advocate Amit Desai participated via video conferencing, while senior advocate Siddharth Agrawal appeared in person.
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Advocate Anupam S Sharma represented the CBI, opposing the bail request. Wadhawan had previously withdrawn his bail plea from the Delhi High Court on May 17. Accused in a CBI case involving the DHFL multi-crore bank loan fraud, Wadhawan sought the High Court’s intervention after the trial court denied him bail. His bail application has been rejected twice by the trial court.
On May 10, Special Judge A K Sarpal of the Rouse Avenue court dismissed his bail application on the grounds of maintainability.
The court directed the CBI to arrest the accused after May 11 and produce them before the CBI court, as per the Supreme Court’s order dated January 24. When the accused’s bail application initially rejected by the CBI Court at Rouse Avenue, the court stated that the accused could move a fresh bail application after being arrested and taken into custody. At that time, the court would consider the request for interim bail on medical grounds or regular bail, if filed.
However, after the accused’s arrest, the bail application was ultimately dismissed by the court. The trial court emphasized that at this stage, the primary requirement to comply with the Supreme Court’s order of January 24, 2024, by taking the accused into physical custody.
Previously, the Bombay High Court granted the individual protection until May 11 on medical grounds. During this time, the individual hospitalized and underwent surgery. After being discharged from the hospital, they had been receiving treatment at home before their arrest.
In a separate case, on January 24, the Supreme Court set aside a Delhi High Court order that had granted statutory bail to the former promoters of Dewan Housing Finance Ltd (DHFL), Kapil Wadhawan and his brother Dheeraj Wadhawan. The Wadhawan brothers had been arrested in connection with a multi-crore rupee bank loan scam case.
The Supreme Court cancelled the bail that had been granted to the Wadhawan brothers, stating that the High Court and trial court had erred in providing them default bail.
The bench declared in its ruling,
“We have no hesitation in stating that since the chargesheet was filed and cognizance was taken within the appropriate timeframe, the respondents could not rightfully claim statutory bail. Both the High Court and the lower court made significant errors in their judgments. The trial court is now instructed to reconsider the case for regular bail. The appeals are thus allowed,”
The Supreme Court overturned the decisions of both the High Court and the trial court, ruling that the Wadhawan brothers not entitled to statutory default bail merely because the investigation against other accused is still ongoing. In this matter, the CBI submitted the chargesheet on the 88th day following the FIR registration, leading the trial court to grant default bail, a decision later upheld by the Delhi High Court.
The chargesheet filed on October 15, 2022, and cognizance, subsequently taken.
The trial court granted them bail, citing the incomplete charge sheet filed by the CBI. They were arrested on July 19, 2023, following an FIR based on a complaint from Union Bank of India.