'Supplementary Chargesheet Contains Lesser Offences': Supreme Court Grants Interim Bail To Rana Kapoor's Wife & Daughters In Yes Bank- DHFL Scam

The Supreme Court on Thursday granted interim bail to Yes Bank founder Rana Kapoor's wife Bindu Kapoor and two daughters - Radha and Roshni Kapoor- in the Rs. 4000 crore Yes Bank – DHFL quid-pro-quo case of 2020 which is currently being investigated by the CBI.

A Bench comprising Justices SK Kaul and MM Sundresh granted bail after the Bombay High Court on September 28 had rejected the bail applications moved by Kapoor's wife and daughters. 

They had moved the Bombay High Court challenging the order of a special CBI court dated September 18 wherein they had been denied bail after noting that they had, prima facie caused a loss of over Rs 4000 crore to the public at large including poor bank depositors.

Additional Solicitor General S.V. Raju appearing for the CBI apprised the Bench on Thursday that a supplementary charge sheet had been filed against the petitioners for the offence of forgery under Sections 468 and 471 of the Indian Penal Code. He further informed the Court that the petitioners had been denied bail by both the trial court as well as the High Court.

Senior advocate Harish Salve appearing for the petitioners informed the Court that one of the daughters of Rana Kapoor had an infant who she was still breastfeeding. He further pointed out to the Court that the charge levelled was that Rana Kapoor had forged the signature of one of his daughters (Radhika Kapoor) but surprisingly, the daughter herself had been denied bail. 

Pursuant to the perusal of the rival submissions, the Court observed, 

"In terms of the supplementary charge sheet under Section 468, IPC (carrying seven years sentence) and Section 471, IPC (bailable offence) are added and the petitioners in SLP (Crl.) No.7515/2021 and SLP (Crl.) No.7513/2021 were summoned for the first time in the supplementary charge sheet and were granted interim bail. Despite the fact that the supplementary charge sheet adds lesser offences, bail has been denied both by the trial Court and by the High Court vide an elaborate order."

The Court further noted that the petitioners had been granted bail earlier with regards to the original charge sheet which included a far graver offence i.e. Section 409 IPC (criminal breach of trust by bank) which carries a sentence of life imprisonment. 

"The aforesaid matrix of facts is something over which there is no dispute. Thus, it appears that on account of lesser offences being charged for by the supplementary charge sheet, bail is sought to be denied even though the petitioners were granted bail earlier when they were charged under Section 409, IPC carrying a life sentence and/or granted interim bail after supplementary charge sheet when they were arrayed as accused for the first time", the Court recorded in its order. 

Accordingly, the Court proceeded to grant interim bail to the petitioners without imposing any additional conditions. 

"The petitioners are granted interim bail with no specific conditions at this stage as the petitioners were granted originally bail/interim bail subject to certain terms and conditions by the trial Court which would naturally equally apply here", the Court directed. 

The CBI was directed to file a counter-affidavit within 4 weeks. Rejoinder affidavit was ordered to be filed within 2 weeks thereafter. 

The matter is slated to be heard next after 6 weeks. 

Background 

According to the prosecution, from April to June 2018, YES Bank invested Rs.3700 Crores in short-term debentures of DHFL and simultaneously Kapil Wadhawan paid a kickback of Rs. 600 Crores under the garb of loan to DOIT Urban Ventures (India) Pvt. Ltd. (DUVPL). Kapoor's wife and two daughters are 100% shareholders of DUVPL through another company, Morgan Credits Private. The accused persons are booked for offences under sections 120-B r/w 409, 420, 468 and 471 of Indian Penal Code and Sec.7, 12, 13(1)(d) r/w 13(2) of Prevention of Corruption Act.

Case Title: Roshni Kapoor v. CBI and other connected matters 

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