Bombay HC grants bail to Avantha Group's Gautam Thapar in Yes Bank fraud case

Bombay High Court granted bail to Gautam Thapar, the promoter of Avantha Group and non-executive chairman of Avantha Realty in connection with the Yes Bank fraud case.

Bombay High Court on Friday granted bail to Gautam Thapar, the promoter of Avantha Group in connection with the Yes Bank fraud case, involving a transaction of over Rs 300 crore with a realty company.

Justice Anuja Prabhudessai of the Bombay High Court granted bail to Gautam Thapar on a bond of Rs 2 lakh to complete the process. An FIR was registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in Mumbai on March 12 last year for offence against Thapar, Yes Bank founder Rana Kapoor and other accused under sections 120B (criminal conspiracy), 420 (cheating) of IPC and sections 7, 11 and 12 of the Prevention of Corruption Act (PCA).

On Oct 8, the agency filed a chargesheet and the special CBI court had summoned Thapar. After he appeared before the court and filed a bail application, it was rejected by the court.

READ | Gautam Thapar involved in grave and serious offence, says Mumbai court while rejecting bail

According to the investigating agency, Kapoor, the prime accused in the case, had acquired property belonging to Avantha at a prime location in Delhi at a considerably lower price than its market value.

Thapar then approached the high court where advocate Mahesh Jethmalani, along with Gunjan Mangala and Karanjawala and Co firm, stated that after the FIR was registered, Thapar had participated in the investigation as and when he was called upon.

Further, Jethmalani submitted that Thapar was not arrested by the CBI throughout the investigation, and a summons was issued by the trial court. Jethmalani took the court through the Supreme court order and clarification passed in Dec 2021 and stated that if the investigating agency did not deem it fit to arrest Thapar during the investigation, then he should not be behind bars when the investigation has ended.