The Bombay High Court has granted bail to DHFL promoters Dheeraj and Kapil Wadhawan in connection with a money laundering case related to a Yes Bank fraud.

MUMBAI: Observing that their long pre-trial incarceration merited their bail, the Bombay high court ordered the release of DHFL promoters Dheeraj and Kapil Wadhawan in an alleged money laundering case connected to a 2020 Yes Bank fraud FIR.
The two brothers were behind bars since May 14, 2020, for almost four years and nine months, said Justice Milind Jadhav in his judgment pronounced on Wednesday.
Invoking the principles of liberty laid down by the Supreme Court in cases where trials are nowhere close to concluding and the accused languish in prison for years, Justice Jadhav said, “Detaining an undertrial prisoner for such an extended period further violates his fundamental right to a speedy trial flowing from Article 21 of the Constitution.” In the PMLA case, the brothers are among 36 accused.
On March 7, 2020, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) lodged its cheating offence first information report (FIR) in the Yes Bank case, and based on it, the same day, the ED registered its case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
The bail was granted on a PR bond of Rs 1 lakh each with various conditions. The brothers, however, will not walk out of prison yet. They are housed in a Delhi prison in connection with a CBI case registered in the capital, in which there is no bail order yet.
The Wadhawans, represented by senior counsel Amit Desai and advocate Kushal Mor, said of the maximum seven years’ imprisonment attracted for the offences they faced, the brothers have already undergone almost five years’ imprisonment. Desai argued that the constitutional right to a speedy trial emanating from the right to life has been held as being equally applicable to PMLA cases by SC. The trial has not commenced in the case yet.
Desai also said it was the responsibility of the investigating agency and the state to ensure that trial commences expeditiously. Special public prosecutor for ED, H S Venegaonkar, the HC noted, “forcefully refuted” Desai’s contention and said bail should be rejected since the delay in trial is attributable to the Wadhawans’ own conduct in keeping their bail plea pending before the special trial court for over a year.
The Wadhawans moved HC for bail after the trial court rejected such a plea on May 10, 2024.
The HC, however, saw the trial court record and stated it “clarifies that (Wadhawans) have sought adjournments on only a few occasions and hence the delay in trial cannot be solely attributed to them when admittedly ED has filed draft charges before the PMLA Court only on May 10, 2023, despite which charges have not been framed till date.”
The high court, noting that the duo had spent over half of their maximum possible sentence in pre-trial incarceration, invoked the right to speedy justice and personal liberty, and said the bail plea is allowed.