SC grants bail to wife, daughters of Yes Bank founder Rana Kapoor

The Supreme Court on Thursday granted interim bail to Yes Bank founder Rana Kapoor’s wife Bindu Kapoor and thier two daughters — Radha and Roshni — in an alleged case of forgery for the purpose of cheating and other offences.

A bench of Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and M M Sundresh granted the relief to the petitioners with no specific conditions at this stage. The court said the bail, however, would be subject to the same terms and conditions which were imposed by the trial court when they were granted interim bail in the original case.

Senior counsel Harish Salve, appearing for the petitioners, submitted that all three accused were granted bail in the serious offences including Section 409 (carrying life sentence) of the IPC mentioned in the original charge sheet, but they were incarcerated on the basis of the supplementary charge sheet, containing lesser offences like Section 468 (carrying seven-year sentence) and others.

He argued that Bindu is in her 60s and her daughter Radha had a breastfed infant to take care of.

Also Read | Bombay HC refuses bail to Yes Bank founder Rana Kapoor's wife, daughters in DHFL corruption case

Senior counsel Mukul Rohatgi, also appearing for the family, said the general principle was that women accused can be granted bail even in non-bailable offences.

The counsel submitted that the charge sheet had already been filed in the matter.

If the accused were not arrested during the investigation, there is no need to arrest them after the charge sheet is filed, they said.

After hearing the counsel, the court allowed a plea by Additional Solicitor General S V Raju, appearing for the CBI, to file a counter affidavit within four weeks. It also gave time to the petitioners to file their rejoinder within two weeks thereafter and put the matter for consideration after six weeks.

Bindu and her daughters were remanded to judicial custody when they appeared before the CBI court on September 18. The special CBI court had rejected their bail pleas. The Bombay High Court had on September 28 rejected their bail applications.

In their plea before the top court, the petitioners said that Rana was the real owner/manager of the bank and they only signed documents and in some cases, Rana “forged” their signatures.

“Petitioners were not in management at Yes Bank or at DHFL, so no knowledge of quid pro quo can be attributed to them. Signing documents in support of loan for DOIT Urban Venture (India) Pvt Ltd (DOIT) is by itself a benign circumstance,” their plea said.

The economic offences wing had in March 2020 registered an FIR against DHFL, DOIT and some other entities, their directors and promoters. It had named Rana as the prime accused.

The CBI had alleged that Yes Bank had invested Rs 3,700 crore in short-term debentures of DHFL between April and June, 2018. In return, DHFL allegedly paid a kickback of Rs 600 crore to Rana in the form of loans to two firms – DoIT Urban Ventures, a firm controlled by Kapoor's wife and daughters, and Morgan Credits, which is controlled by Bindu.

Check out latest DH videos here