Mumbai: The special court under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) has taken cognisance of a recent charge- sheet by the ED against Kapil and Dheeraj Wadhawan of erstwhile DHFL and summoned them on June 13.
The ED filed a chargesheet against the Wadhawans and 15 others for money laundering to the tune of Rs34,615 crore, claiming that diversion of funds began in 2005-06 through their 225 entities. While Dheeraj Wadhawan is out on bail, Kapil Wadhawan is still in jail in connection with another CBI case.
The ED has claimed that the Wadhawans spent the laundered funds to maintain an extravagant lifestyle and bought properties, paintings, diamonds, jewellery, sculptures, a heli-copter, and a 20% stake in M/s Varva Aviation. The special court noted that the accused were helped by their employees in preparing inflated books of accounts of DHFL through thousands of fake home loans by inducing a consortium of 29 banks (which later reduced to 17).
The consortium led by Union Bank of India had agreed to give credit facilities to DHFL on July 29, 2010. In July 2020, several banks exited from the consortium but the quantum of credit extended to DHFL was Rs42,871.42 cr, which the group failed to fulfil, causing a loss to the tune of Rs34,614.88 cr.
