Yes Bank fraud: Special court extends CBI custody of Kapil and Dheeraj Wadhawan till May 1

The special CBI court on Wednesday extended the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) custody of Dheeraj and Kapil Wadhawan of Diwan Housing Finance Corporation

The special CBI court on Wednesday extended the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) custody of Dheeraj and Kapil Wadhawan of Diwan Housing Finance Corporation Limited (DHFL) till May 1 in connection with the Yes Bank fraud case.

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The brothers were arrested on Sunday and were remanded in CBI custody till Wednesday. As the period for custody ended, the CBI produced them before the special CBI court on Wednesday seeking extension of their custody for further investigation.

The agency said they only got one day after their arrest to interrogate them on the various aspects of loans and debentures obtained from Yes Bank during the tenure of Rana Kapoor, co-founder and CEO of Yes Bank. The prosecution also claimed the accused have not cooperated in the questioning, hence the probing agency needs more time to unearth the conspiracy.

The plea was objected by defence lawyers, Amit Desai and Subodh Desai, who submitted that the custodial interrogation of the two is not required. It was argued that the case is based on banking transaction and money trails, documents of which are available with the agency. They also submitted that everything is available in the form of record and argues that the accused need not be sent to CBI custody in times of Covid-19 pandemic.

According to the CBI FIR, between April and June, 2018, Yes Bank invested ₹3,700 crore in short-term debentures of DHFL, which is till date not redeemed. It is further alleged that Yes Bank had sanctioned loans to RKW Developers, where Dheeraj is a director, and that the whole amount was siphoned off by Kapil. CBI has alleged that in return, Wadhawans allegedly “paid kickback of ₹600 crore” to Kapoor and his family members in the form of loan to DoIT Urban Ventures (India) Pvt Ltd.