Yes Bank-DHFL loan case: Court says no case made out against nine including Balwa

In its latest chargesheet–the fourth in the case–filed in January, the CBI claimed that Rs 678 crore were diverted from the loan amount to a firm of builder Sanjay Chhabariaa, which was not permitted. The CBI named stockbroker Sanjay Dangi as accused in the new chargesheet claiming that Rs 115 crore were further diverted to his company from the initial loan amount.

The court said there are no documents or evidence collected by the CBI on the presence of Dangi when the initial loan was sanctioned nor any proof that he had knowledge about the conspiracy.

“There is no recital in the chargesheet, as to whether Sanjay Dangi was aware of the fact that the amount of the loan taken will be diverted in the account of his company or not. As such, the charge which has been levelled against accused Sanjay Dangi regarding cheating Yes Bank, M/s DHFL etc. has no basis,” special judge A C Daga said in the order on March 13, made available on Saturday.

The court also said that the CBI has claimed that the loan was sanctioned by Yes Bank on September 28, 2018, and diverted to DHFL on the same day. It raised the question as to how this was possible.

On the role of Balwa and Goenka, also named for the first time in the fourth chargesheet, the CBI had said Rs 350 crore were also diverted towards their company.

The court said that at the time of the filing of the fourth chargesheet, the pending loan amount from Yes Bank was settled. “It is also important to note that prior to filing of the fourth supplementary chargesheet, the loan account was settled and nothing is outstanding. This itself goes to show that accused persons were not intending to cheat DHFL by taking the loan from it,” the court said dropping proceedings against them.

Following that Goenka, Dangi and Balwa in separate applications sought cancellation of their pending LOCs. The court said that since the proceedings are dropped, the CBI is directed to cancel the LOCs against them in the case.

The court said that the CBI had made out a case only against four and issued summons to them stating that there was proof of their involvement with the use of the loan money. These were Rahul Shah, Ramesh Shah, Sumer Buildcorp Private Limited and one absconding accused Farid Sama.