On Tuesday, the High Court of Bombay struck down observations made by the special CBI Court, that offences of cheating & criminal breach of trust were “made out” against all the accused in the Yes Bank fraud case. Central Bureau of Investigation has booked Yes Bank co-founder Rana Kapur & Dewan Housing Finance Limited (DHFL) promoters Kapil Wadhawan & Dheeraj Wadhawan under sections 420 (cheating) & 120B (conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) & sections 7 (public servant taking gratification), 12 (abetment of offences), & 13(2) (criminal misconduct) r/w. 13(1)(d) (obtaining any valuable thing or pecuniary advantage by any corrupt or illegal means or by abusing position) of the Prevention of Corruption (PC) Act, 1988.
The Judge said that “It is thus evident that the impugned observations have been made for the purpose of remitting the proceedings to the metropolitan magistrate, & that there was no application of mind for arriving at a prima facie conclusion that offences under sections 420, 409 r/w 120B of the IPC are in fact, made out against all the accused”.
“The apprehension of the applicants, that these observations may leave no discretion unto the learned metropolitan magistrate… cannot be said to be baseless,” she said & clarified that the magistrate should proceed with the matter without being influenced by the observation.
