New Delhi [India], June 20 : The Supreme Court on Friday asked the Delhi High Court to decide expeditiously the bail plea of Dewan Housing Finance Ltd's former promoter Kapil Wadhawan in the multi-crore bank fraud case investigated by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
A vacation bench of Justices Ujjal Bhuyan and Manmohan asked the High Court to decide Wadhawan's plea within two weeks.
The bench noted that Wadhawan was in custody since July 2022 and his bail plea was coming up for hearing on July 18 in the High Court.
Wadhawan has approached the apex court seeking expeditious disposal of his petition saying his bail petition had been adjourned several times.
The top court was informed about Wadhawan's long custody period aside from the non-adjudication on his bail plea on multiple occasions.
On July 19, 2022, the Wadhawan brothers -- Kapil and Dheeraj -- were arrested in the case.
Dheeraj Wadhawan was granted interim bail by the High Court on September 9, 2024 on medical grounds.
On October 15, 2022, the CBI had filed the chargesheet and cognisance was taken by the trial court.
The FIR in the case was based on a complaint made by the Union Bank of India.
According to the CBI FIR, Dewan Housing Finance Ltd (DHFL), its then CMD Kapil Wadhawan, then director Dheeraj Wadhawan and other accused persons conspired to cheat the consortium of 17 banks led by the Union Bank of India.
CBI alleged that the accused and others induced the consortium to sanction huge loans aggregating Rs 42,871.42 crore.
The agency further claimed that much of the amount was allegedly siphoned off and misappropriated by alleged falsification of the books of the DHFL and dishonest default in repayment of the legitimate dues of the consortium banks.
As per the complainant a wrongful loss of Rs 34,615 crore was caused to the consortium banks in as much as such was the quantification of the outstanding dues as on July 31, 2020.