On April 18, Wadhawans had moved the Court seeking cancellation of open ended arrest warrants issued against the duo by a Court on March 17. Staying the arrest of Wadhawans till May 5, the Court had granted an ex-parte stay order. The CBI chose to move the Court on Saturday (April 25), than waiting till May 5, demanding vacation of stay granted on the arrest of Kapil and Dheeraj Wadhawan. The agency alleged that Wadhawans had “misrepresented the Court (on April 18) by falsely stating that they learnt about the issuance of arrest warrants” after a month.
“It appears from the record summons have been duly served to Kapil and Dheeraj Wadhawan. The copies of service summons through email and through SMS have been placed before the court”, the court held in its April 25 order.
The court further said “The order dated April 18 specified that stayed order was granted due to Quarantine period and lockdown period till May 5. However, the facts appear before the Court that quarantine period is already over. Moreover, the lockdown period is also relaxed in certain portion of the state. Perusal of the stay order clearly indicates that the Court did not decide the application on merit of same. The order of non bailable warrants (NBW) issued by regular Court against the accused was based on factual aspects that the accused did not appear before the CBI despite of issuance of notice and issued non bailable warrants against the accused”.
The order further read “further, it is also material to note that the accused are required for investigation in the present case which is multi crore bank fraud case. Therefore, one cannot overlook the apprehension on part of CBI that accused may take disadvantage of stay order and may abscond from their present location”. Observing this, the Court vacated the stay on arrest of Wadhawans.
With Wadhawans legal team unaware of the ex-parte order, the agency promptly took the Wadhawans in their custody on Sunday. The investigating officer of the case travelled by road from Delhi to Mumbai, due to the lockdown, to complete the formalities and interrogate Wadhawans.
The remand paper, accessed by ET, further states that “involvement of senior officials of Yes Bank” is being investigated.
