Updated: September 22, 2020 7:04:54 pm
The Wadhawan brothers are being investigated by the Emergency Department as part of two PMLA investigations linked to gangster Iqbal Mirchi.
A Dubai-based company owned by arrested Dewan Housing Finance Limited (DHFL) developers, Kapil Wadhawan and Dheeraj Wadhawan, gifted four properties to the late gangster Iqbal Mirchi’s son, Asif Iqbal Memon, in 2015, according to an investigation by the Directorate. Execution (ED). .
Sources told The Indian Express that in 2015, Dheeraj and East Coast LLC transferred four commercial properties totaling over 2,900 square feet in Marsa, Dubai, to Memon without any monetary consideration. Apart from this, Dheeraj and East Coast also sold 10 commercial properties in Business Bay in Dubai to Memon at a discount of 57 percent off the current market price. These properties were sold for AED 4.5 million, while the ED found the market price of the properties to be AED 10.6 million.
The ED has tentatively attached these fourteen properties along with the Midwest Hotel in Dubai, owned by Asif Memon, his brother Junaid and his mother Hazra Iqbal, in connection with their money laundering case against Iqbal Mirchi. The total value of these properties, according to ED, is approximately 203 million rupees. With this, the total value of the attachments in this case is 776 million rupees, according to ED.
The Wadhawans came under ED’s scanner in October 2019, when an investigation into the alleged money laundering activities of the late gangster Iqbal Mirchi, a close associate of Dawood Ibrahim, found a 225 million rupee land deal between Mirchi and Sunblink Real Estate Pvt Ltd, a DHFL partner company. According to the agency, the land deal between Sunblink and Iqbal Mirchi was negotiated on behalf of Dheeraj Wadhawan. The same month, a forensic audit conducted by KPMG on behalf of DHFL lenders found a diversion of more than Rs 19 billion from bank loans to DHFL-related entities.
DHFL, which owes Rs 83,873 crore to banks, mutual funds and investors, also became the first non-bank finance company (NBFC) to be referred to bankruptcy court for resolution by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in November. 2019. RBI replaced DHFL’s board and appointed a three-member advisory body to advise the company’s RBI-appointed administrator.
In January 2020, a month after filing the charge sheet in the Mirchi case, the DE arrested Kapil Wadhawan. However, a local court granted Wadhawan bail on 21 February. The court in its order said that DHFL’s assets did not appear to be the proceeds of a crime as claimed by ED. Dheeraj has also obtained advance bond from a Mumbai court.
Despite the bail, the Wadhawans once again got into trouble after the ED filed a money laundering case against Yes Bank co-founder Rana Kapoor for allegedly receiving bribes of more than 600 million rupees for loans. granted by the bank to DHFL.
In April, the Wadhawan brothers were arrested by the Maharashtra police for breaking the blockade imposed to contain Covid-19. Wadhaw residents reportedly traveled from a guest house in Khandala to their country house, Dewan Villa, in Mahabaleshwar in Maharashtra with 21 other people, including some relatives. Subsequently, the DE took custody of the brothers in connection with the Yes Bank case.
Last month, the Bombay High Court granted bail to the Wadhawan brothers as it ruled that the DE did not file its complaint (indictment) against them in the Yes Bank case on time. The ED moved the Supreme Court, which did not suspend the higher court order until October 7.
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