The Free Press Journal

Court rejects interim bail of Rakesh and Sarang Wadhawan

Pleas had cited COVID-19 outbreak in Arthur Road prison

- BHAVNA UCHIL

A special court hearing urgent cases charged under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) on Monday rejected the temporary bail plea of Housing Developmen­t and Infrastruc­ture Limited (HDIL) promoters Rakesh Kumar Wadhawan and his son Sarang Wadhawan.

The duo had filed the plea seeking interim bail on grounds of the coronaviru­s situation in Arthur Road jail. The pleas had said that after the coronaviru­s outbreak in Arthur Road jail, they are at high-risk of contractin­g the infection due to their underlying medical ailments. Rakesh Wadhawan had said he had suffered lung failure.

Appearing for the Enforcemen­t Directorat­e advocate Hiten Venegaonka­r argued against the grant of temporary bail to the two. No one is allowed inside or outside the Arthur Road prison due to the high number of cases there, he told court, and said that it might be a threat to let the duo out on bail, in case they are infected.

Further, Venegaonka­r argued that those cited in the pleas are old ailments and report from the prison which was called for by the court, states that the duo are being kept in isolation, in a separate room, hence are safe from infection.

While rejecting the bail pleas of the father and son, the special court observed that there was no immediate threat to their health. It also considered the jail report and that the ailments were old.

Mid-last month the interim bail plea of Rakesh Wadhawan on medical grounds had been rejected, with the court observing that the medical report of the prison officer had not cited any medical condition of Wadhawan that cannot be taken care of while in custody and that the bail plea on merit is still pending before court.

The Wadhawans are a key accused in the ED case wherein HDIL had taken loans from PMC bank from 2008 to 2019 without repaying previous loans. The bank’s huge exposure to HDIL allegedly constitute­d 73 per cent of its bad loans.

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