Wadhawan brothers booked for bank fraud
NEW DELHI: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has booked Kapil and Dheeraj Wadhawan of Dewan Housing and Finance Ltd (DHFL) for cheating a consortium of 17 banks led by Union Bank of India of ₹34,615 crore, the biggest ever bank fraud probe undertaken by the federal agency.
After registering the first information report (FIR), agency teams carried out raids at 12 locations including the office and residence of the Wadhawans and others in Mumbai on Wednesday.
The agency claimed in its FIR, filed on Monday, against the Wadhawan brothers, Sudhakar Shetty and 10 firms, that the promoters of DHFL, in conspiracy with others, including public servants, induced the banks to sanction and disburse the loans worth ₹42,871 crore between 2010 and 2018.
It said Wadhawan brothers diverted the funds to entities controlled by them by way of sanctioning loans to these entities without due diligence, without obtaining adequate security, and through falsification of books of accounts, thereby causing a loss of ₹34,614.88 crore to the consortium banks.
Of the amount, the State Bank of India (SBI) has the highest exposure of ₹9,898 crore, followed by Bank of India (₹4,044 crore), Canara Bank (₹4,022 crore), Union Bank of India (₹3,813 crore), Punjab National Bank (₹3,802 crore), and Bank of Baroda (₹2,036 crore). Other banks defrauded by DHFL are Bank of Maharashtra, Federal
Bank, Central Bank of India, IDBI Bank, Indian Bank, Indian Overseas Bank, Karnataka Bank, Punjab and Sind Bank, South Indian Bank and UCO Bank, with their exposure ranging from ₹71 crore to ₹1,499 crore.
Officials said this is the biggest-ever bank fraud case taken up by the CBI, bigger than the ABG Shipyard Ltd FIR registered in February this year.
The promoters of DHFL are already being investigated by the CBI and the ED in multiple other cases including the Yes Bank fraud involving Rana Kapoor and a fraud case pertaining to creation of 2.60 lakh fake home loan accounts under the Pradhan Mantri Aawas Yojana (PMAY) worth ₹14,046 crore. The Wadhawans are accused of paying a kickback of ₹600 crore to Yes Bank founder Rana Kapoor.
According to the complaint of Union Bank of India to the CBI, which is part of the first information report (FIR), when DHFL started defaulting on payments to the lenders May 2019 and a special review was carried out by the banks, the company falsely assured them about its financial condition, saying that it had enough liquidity.
Advocate Rohan Dakshini, who represents Wadhawans, said: “This entire matter is already being litigated in the Supreme Court and the NCLAT. The appellate tribunal (in January) asked the lenders to reconsider their decision regarding the valuation of DHFL’s avoidance transactions. And now, the CBI has registered a case. The fundamental fact is projects linked to these loans have value, which has been ignored”.