india

Updated: Apr 29, 2020 17:52 IST

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

The brothers were arrested on Sunday and were remanded to CBI custody till Wednesday. As the period for custody ended, the two were again produced before the special CBI court on Wednesday afternoon. The agency probing Yes Bank fraud case sought extension of their custody for further investigation.

The agency pleaded that they only got one day after their arrest to interrogate them on various aspects of the loans and debentures obtained from Yes Bank during the tenure of Rana Kapoor, founder and Chief Executive Officer of Yes Bank. The prosecution also claimed that the accused have not cooperated in the questioning and they need more time to unearth the conspiracy.

The plea was objected by the defense lawyers Amit Desai and Subodh Desai submitting 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 hence the accused need not be sent to CBI custody in times of Covid emergency.

The court after considering the arguments from both the side has extended the CBI custody of the two brothers for two more days till May 1.

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