DHFL CMD Kapil Wadhawan sent to five-day ED custody in money laundering case

A special PMLA (Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002) court on Monday remanded Kapil Wadhawan, Chairman and Managing Director of DHFL (Dewan Housing Finance Ltd), to the Enforcement Directorate's custody till February 7. Wadhawan was booked and arrested in the case involving underworld gangster Iqbal Mirchi in a money laundering case last Monday.

On January 27, Wadhawan appeared before the special PMLA court in Mumbai after the ED asked the court to issue a non-bailable warrant against him and four others including Mirchi's wife Hazra, sons Junaid and Asif, and Sunny Bhatija (Kapil's brother-in-law).

DHFL, the country's leading housing financier, has come under the scanner of the ED in connection with its alleged link with global terrorist Dawood Ibrahim's aide Iqbal Mirchi, is now suspected of fund diversion. The non-banking financial corporation had come under the ED's scanner after investigations revealed that a loan of Rs 2,186 crore extended by DHFL to Sunblink Real Estate Private Limited had reached D-company in Dubai. Sunblink had facilitated routing of the amount to Mirchi.

The ED alleged that Kapil Wadhawan "diverted" funds from DHFL to shell companies and later these dubious companies got amalgamated with Sunblink Real Estate Pvt Ltd to "cover" alleged diversion of loans acquired from DHFL.

DHFL belongs to the Wadhawan family who also owns RKW Developers located at the HDIL building. RKW Developers Director Ranjit Bindra acted as a broker to negotiate the deal with Iqbal Mirchi in London.

The route of Sunblink was "purposefully created by Kapil Wadhawan as CMD of DHFL and others just to obfuscate the trail of money for the purchase of properties" from the Mirchi family, the agency alleged.

The ED has filed a criminal case against Mirchi alias Iqbal Memon, his family and others to probe money laundering charges for alleged illegal dealings in purchase and sale of costly real estate assets in Mumbai. Mirchi, who died in 2013 in London, was alleged to be the right-hand man of global terrorist Dawood Ibrahim in drug trafficking and extortion crimes.

Also Read: DHFL lent Rs 14,000 crore to 25 group firms, reveals forensic audit

Also Read: ED raids DHFL premises over alleged links with Iqbal Mirchi

Edited by Manoj Sharma