New Delhi. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) conducted the raid in connection with the investigation into a money laundering case to loan fraud committed by M/s Dewan Housing Finance Corporation Limited (DHFL) and its promoters. ED's Delhi team had conducted the search operation on August 19 under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002. During the search, ED got many evidences to money laundering. ED officials seized several documents and records to the transactions and properties under investigation.
ED has started this investigation on the basis of the FIR registered by CBI. This FIR was lodged following a complaint lodged by Union Bank of India on behalf of a consortium of 17 banks. The FIR states that former DHFL promoters Kapil Wadhawan and Dheeraj Wadhawan and other accused hatched a criminal conspiracy to defraud banks. These banks had sanctioned total credit facilities of Rs 42,871.42 crore to DHFL. The loan money was siphoned off and misused by manipulating the books of accounts of DHFL, causing a loss of approximately Rs 34,615 crore to the lenders of the consortium.
Investigations have revealed that an overseas property named 'Hartmore House' in the United Kingdom, which was in the name of Kapil Wadhawan's wife Vanita Wadhawan, was sold through multiple transactions. In these transactions, a fake liability was created in his name. A purported loan agreement was entered into between M/s Al Jalore Trading FZE and Vanita Wadhawan and under the same the UK property was mortgaged. The investigation revealed that this arrangement was used to create an encumbrance on foreign assets to repay the liability arising in India due to the DHFL loan fraud.
