SC stays Bombay HC order granting bail to Wadhawan brothers in Yes Bank case

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday stayed a Bombay High Court order granting bail to former DHFL promoters, Kapil Wadhawan and Dheeraj Wadhawan, in the Yes Bank money laundering case being probed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED). The top court issued notice to the accused on the plea of the Enforcement Directorate against the High Court order of bail.

"Issue notice. Counsel for the private respondent (Wadhawans) accepts notice. It is stated that the State of Maharashtra is really only a formal party," said a bench of Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul, Ajay Rastogi and Aniruddha Bose.

"In the meantime, there shall be interim order of stay of the impugned order till the next date" the bench said and sought response of the accused on ED 's plea within two weeks and posted the case for hearing on October 7.

The Bombay High Court had on August 20 granted bail to the Wadhawan brothers stating that mandatory default bail is the sequel to non-filing of charge sheet.

Justice Bharati Dangre had granted them bail as it held that the ED failed to file its chargesheet in the case within the stipulated 60-day period.

The central probe agency had then filed a special leave petition before the apex court.

The federal probe agency had said that it was not in violation of the procedure and had filed a part of the charge sheet through email, a day before the 60-day period ended.

The chargesheet was filed in physical form by the ED on July 13.

The Wadhawans, former promoters of the Dewan Housing Finance Corporation (DHFC), however were not released on bail as they are in CBI custody at present.

They were arrested by the ED on May 14 under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

The ED had slapped PMLA charges against the two and in this case after studying a CBI FIR filed in March in connection with alleged suspicious loans granted by Yes Bank and the ''quid pro quo'' between its co-promoter Rana Kapoor and the Wadhawans.

According to the CBI and ED, Yes Bank invested around Rs 3,700 crore in short term non-convertible debentures of DHFL between April and June 2018.