From London to New York: ED identifies DHFL chief Kapil Wadhawan's assets worth Rs 3,000 crore

The Enforcement Directorate has identified properties worth Rs 3,000 crore allegedly belonging to DHFL promoter Kapil Wadhawan in India and abroad. The central agency suspects these assets were bought with funds siphoned off from DHFL and laundered through hawala channels. Wadhawan is presently under ED's custody in relation to a money laundering case involving gangster Dawood Ibrahim's close aide Iqbal Mirchi.

The list of properties identified by the ED includes a 12,000 square feet parcel of land worth Rs 1,000 crore in Melboune, two flats in New York, a flat and an office space in London, one villa worth Rs 50 crore in Thailand's Koh Samui, Hotel Radisson Blu in Pune, Hotel Country Inn in Mysore, four flats in Khar's DB Breeze, one flat in Mumbai's Sea View Palace, one flat in Juhu, a bungalow in Mahabaleshwar, and a housing society with more than 500 flats in Kurla.

The value of these properties is pegged at Rs 3,000 crore, India Today reported. The ED suspects that Wadhawans had allegedly brought several other properties in the name of shell companies created by them or their associates.

Kapil Wadhawan, Chairman and Managing Director of Dewan Housing Finance Ltd (DHFL), was sent to ED custody by a special PMLA court till February 7. The company came under ED's scanner for alleged link with global terrorist Dawood Ibrahim's aide Iqbal Mirchi, and is now suspected of fund diversion. 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, which 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 Iqbal Memon alias Iqbal Mirchi, 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.

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