Rs 2,654-crore bank fraud: Two Guj HC judges recuse from hearing bail applications of Vadodara businessmen

In October, Justice R P Dholaria had recused from hearing the bail plea of the two brothers, who are directors of Diamond Power Transformers Ltd (DPIL), a private firm based in Vadodara.

Previously, Justice Pardiwala had heard and ordered release of 80-year-old Suresh Bhatnagar, father of Amit and Sumit, on bail on medical grounds.

After the CBI submitted the chargesheet against the three in July, Sumit Bhatnagar had sought bail and his plea came up for hearing before Justice Pardiwala.

In August, he then passed an order, stating: “In the course of the hearing of this bail application, it was brought to my notice that the brother of the applicant herein, namely, Amit Bhatnagar, is also one of the accused persons, against whom, chargesheet has been filed. The allegations against both the brothers are the same. In fact, both the brothers are the directors of the Company. However, the bail application filed by the brother (Amit) of the applicant herein is being heard by a coordinate Bench.”

The coordinate Bench was then presided over by Justice Dholaria before whom lawyer of the accused had proposed that the accused’s company is capable of clearing the entire loan amount and the modality was also being discussed. Since two different courts were hearing two bail pleas from the same case, Sumit’s plea was also placed before Justice Dholaria.

After several hearings, Justice Dholaria on October 10 adjourned the hearing to November 19, but the litigant’s lawyers on October 29 moved the court seeking rescheduling of the hearing and the permission was granted. A day later on October 30, Justice Dholaria recused himself.

The CBI had registered an FIR on March 26, alleging that Bhatnagars, who run DPIL, defrauded a consortium of public and private sector banks, leaving behind an outstanding debt of Rs 2,654.40 crore as on June 29, 2016. The FIR stated that the firm, involved in manufacturing cables and other electrical equipment, got the term loan and credit facilities despite the fact that they were already appearing in the defaulters list of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) at the time of initial sanction of credit limits by the consortium.