Hyderabad HC rejects bail to Deccan Chronicle promoters

DCHL chairman T Venkattram Reddy and managing director T Vinayak Ravi Reddy, accused in a loan fraud case, are in a local jail for the past 2 months

Don't want to miss the best from Business Standard?

Hyderabad High Court on Wednesday refused to grant bail to Deccan Chronicle Holdings Limited (DCHL) chairman T Venkattram Reddy and his brother and the media firm's managing director T Vinayak Ravi Reddy, who have been in a local jail for the past couple of months after they were arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation(CBI) in connection with an alleged loan fraud case.

Earlier, the sessions court had rejected the bail plea of the two accused.

High Court judge Justice U Durga Prasad Rao declared the dismissal of the bail petitions filed by the Reddy brothers just before breaking for lunch this afternoon. The court had heard the arguments of the petitioners and the CBI on the bail petitions last week. The CBI counsel opposed the bail to DCHL promoters on the grounds that the accused would influence the ongoing investigation besides informing the court that the third promoter of the company, P K Iyer, was still at large.

The CBI sleuths representing the Banking Securities and Fraud Cell from Bengaluru had arrested the two brothers on February 14 in connection with the bank fraud case involving Rs 358 crore loan extended by Canara Bank. The CBI alleged the accused had resorted to criminal irregularities, including forgery of documents to secure the loan from the bank. The investigative agency had named Venkattram Reddy and Vinayak Ravi Reddy as A1 and A2 in this case.

This is just one of the several loan default cases or the legal and criminal actions initiated by the lenders against the promoters of the debt-ridden media company. It has total loan dues running into around Rs 4,000 crore as of 2012 according to the promoters' own admission in the year 2013.

In one of such cases, the Supreme Court last month asked the promoters to settle the loan dues with Indiabulls Housing Finance Company(IBHFL) by finding a buyer for the mortgaged residential properties in three weeks. The orders followed after the DCHL counsel informed the court that their client is ready to settle the matter, according to an IBHFL statement.

Since their arrest, the 14 th Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate court, which is the statutory court for this case, has been extending the judicial remand of the accused while initially allowing a 5-day custody to the CBI for the interrogation.

"Our clients have been in judicial remand for the past 61 days. As the FIR was filed under the criminal sections of cheating and forgery, our clients are entitled to approach the statutory court for bail after 60 days. Therefore we are now filing a petition before the additional chief metropolitan magistrate court seeking bail for our clients," a lawyer representing the DCHL promoters told Business Standard after the rejection of their bail petition by the Hyderabad high court.