CBI lists fund transfer from Yes Bank to DHFL to Radius’ Sanjay Chhabria
A day after his arrest, city-based realtor Sanjay Chhabria was remanded to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) custody till May 6 by a special court in Mumbai. Chhabria of Radius Developers was arrested on Thursday in connection with a case of defaulting on a loan of Rs 3,000 crore from DHFL. The central probe agency produced him before special judge SH Gwalani and sought his 14-day custody for further probe into the matter. As per CBI officials, in June 2018, DHFL appraised and sanctioned loans of Rs 1,100 crore and Rs 900 crores to M/s Radius Estate Projects Pvt Ltd (REPPL) and Sumer Radius Realty Pvt Ltd (SRRPL), respectively, two companies controlled by Chhabria. Kapil Wadhawan of DHFL also disbursed loans amounting to Rs 416 crore to M/s Radius Estates and Developers Pvt Ltd (REDPL) and REPPL without any appraisal or risk assessment of the said
Radius Group concerns.
The CBI said in its remand application that pursuant to the sanction of the loan of Rs 750 crore by Yes Bank to M/s Belief Realtors Pvt Ltd (BRPL), an amount of Rs 632 crore was diverted by BRPL to the accounts of DHFL and a major part of the said amount was thereafter transferred by DHFL to M/s Flag
Industries India Pvt Ltd and other companies owned by Chhabria on September 29, 2018.
In its application, the CBI has alleged that the disbursement of BRPL loan was also facilitated by Chhabria by way of execution of a Development Management Agreement dated August 10, 2018 with the said M/s BRPL through another company controlled by Radius Group (Raghuleela Builders Pvt Ltd; RBPL).
The execution of the said DM Agreement was a prerequisite condition for the loan sanctioned by Yes Bank to M/s BRPL. The CBI said in its application, “The significant amounts from the aforesaid loans have been diverted and it is essential to interrogate the accused with regard to utilisation of the said funds and the whereabouts thereof. The custodial interrogation of Chhabria is necessary to ascertain the end use of aforesaid loans aggregating to Rs 3,094 crore, for the purpose of recovery of material evidence pertaining to the said transactions and the related issues.”
Advocate Vaibhav Krishna, who appeared for Chhabria, contended that that his client always cooperated with the investigation. Two of the loans were assigned by DHFL and due diligence was done before disbursal, he said, adding that all utilisation happened by cheques and not by cash. He added that when the probe into the DHFL case began in 2019, he (Chhabria) was called as a witness by the probe agency and he has given hard copies of all details and documents and pen drive as well as bank statements.