Bombay HC grants bail to ex-chief, deputy MD of IDBI Bank in KFA loan default case

THE BOMBAY High Court on Friday granted bail to former chairman and managing director of IDBI Bank Yogesh Aggarwal, and IDBI deputy managing director B K Batra in a matter relating to an IDBI loan default case relating to Kingfisher.

Justice S S Jadhav granted bail on payment of surety bond of Rs 1 lakh each.

Earlier the court had said,“No one will question your endeavor to investigate (CBI). But what is suspiciousisthemannerinwhich they were taken into custody.”

On February 11, a special CBI court had rejected Aggarwal and Batra’s bail after the CBI argued that it needed to conduct “further probe”intothecase.however,the two approached HC saying that in the 40 days since their arrest, the CBI had not called them for questioning and they couldn’t be kept in judicial custody indefinitely considering the CBI had filed a charge sheet in the matter.

With additional solicitor general Anil Singh had argued that the disrbursment of the loan was done without following mandatory norms, the High Court had raised questions about the continued incarceration of the applicants asking if this would not amount to punitive detention?”

Both of them were arrested along with seven others by the CBI on January 23, just a day before the agency filed its chargesheet in the case.

The HC had earlier come down heavily on CBI stating that the investigating agency failed to follow legal mandates in arresting and in dealing with the other accused persons in the matter.