New Delhi: The CBI wanted a second look at the charges. The court said the file is closed on that question.
Special Judge Sanjeev Kumar Malhotra has refused the agency's application to alter charges against Dewan Housing Finance Ltd's former CMD Kapil Wadhawan, former director Dheeraj Wadhawan and businessman Ajay Ramesh Nawandar in a bank fraud case the CBI registered in June 2022. The order is dated October 29.
The agency's case is that the accused defrauded a consortium of 17 banks to the tune of Rs 34,000 crore, which the CBI has described as among the biggest banking loan frauds in the country.
The court's reasoning rests on a limit on its own power. "It is also pertinent to note that this court cannot review its own order except to the limited extent of correcting a clerical or typographical error," the judge said.
The judge accepted that a party may bring facts or material to the court's notice that could warrant adding or altering a charge. But he held that no party has a vested right to seek such a change, because the power rests with the court alone.
On the specifics, the court said it had already held that the charge under Section 409 of the Indian Penal Code — criminal breach of trust by a public servant, banker, merchant or agent — did not apply to Kapil and Dheeraj Wadhawan.
It also found no evidence to frame charges against any of the three accused under Section 206, which deals with fraudulent removal or concealment of property to prevent its seizure as a forfeiture or in execution of a decree. Nor did it find grounds under Section 424, which covers dishonest or fraudulent removal or concealment of property.
The court further declined to frame a charge for the substantive offence of criminal conspiracy against all the accused, noting that it had already considered the evidence and framed charges against specific individuals.
Charges under various penal provisions were framed against 104 accused persons on July 30. Five people were discharged at that stage.
For the CBI, the order narrows the room it has left in a case that has already been through charge-framing once. For the accused, it removes the possibility of additional counts being added at this stage. The trial itself is yet to begin.
The next step is the trial court's schedule, not another application on the same point.