CENTRAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION Vs. KAPIL WADHAWAN

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Leave granted.

(2.) The appellant-CBI has sought to challenge the impugned order dtd. 30/5/2023 passed by the High Court of Delhi at New Delhi in CRL. M.C. No. 6544 of 2022 upholding the order dtd. 3/12/2022 passed by the Special Judge (PC Act), CBI-08, New Delhi (hereinafter referred to as the Special Court), by which respondent nos. 1 and 2 have been granted default bail under Sec. 167(2) Cr.P.C.

(3.) The short facts giving rise to the present appeal are that an FIR bearing no. RC2242022A0001 came to be registered in CBI, ACVI / SIT, New Delhi on 20/6/2022, on the basis of the complaint lodged by Sh. Vipin Kumar Shukla, DGM, Union Bank of India, Nariman Point, Mumbai, for the offences punishable under Sec. 120-B r/w Sec. 409, 420 and 477A of IPC and Sec. 13(2) r/w Sec. 13(1)(d) of PC Act, 1988 (hereinafter referred to as the PC Act), against Dewan Housing Finance Corporation Ltd. (DHFL) and 12 other accused persons/companies. It was alleged in the said FIR inter alia that the DHFL, Sh. Kapil Wadhawan, the then Chairman and Managing Director, DHFL, along with 12 other accused persons entered into a criminal conspiracy to cheat the consortium of 17 banks led by Union Bank of India, and in pursuance to the said criminal conspiracy, the said accused persons/entities induced the consortium banks to sanction huge loans aggregating to Rs.42,000.00 crores approx. and thereafter they siphoned off and misappropriated a significant portion of the said funds by falsifying the books of account of DHFL and deliberately and dishonestly defaulted on repayment of the legitimate dues of the said consortium banks, and thereby caused a wrongful loss of Rs.34,000.00 crores to the consortium lenders during the period January, 2010 to December, 2019.