ED attaches Wadhavans' properties worth Rs 3,000 crore; assets seized over 80% of PMC Bank loans

Moneycontrol has learnt that properties the ED attached today include about 2,100 acres of land located in Vasai, Virar and Palghar. However, about 1,000 acres of the land attached today are encumbered, including 600 acres to PMC Bank and another 400 acre to another bank.

"The land is estimated to be worth up to Rs 3,000 crore. The price of the land is about Rs 1-1.5 crores per acres," a senior ED official said.

The ED's action, which is based on the investigation of the Mumbai Police's Economic Offences Wing (EoW), comes soon after it also initiated provisional attachment of the Wadhawans’ 22-room beachside Alibaug bungalow that stands on a 2.5-acre property, two private jets -- a Falcon 200 and a Bombardier Challenger -- and jewellery worth Rs 60 crore.

The agency had also frozen five bank accounts of Waryam Singh, the former chairperson of the PMC Bank, who was named in the first information reports (FIRs) of the ED and EoW.

So far, the value of the assets attached total up to Rs 3,500 crore, or more than 80 percent of the money it owes PMC Bank, even as, a source said, the ED is confident of exceeding the total amount owed.

The ED suspects that a significant part of the unpaid loans was diverted for unspecified purposes, including the acquisition of assets, and otherwise misappropriated, sources said.

“Funds from the unpaid loans that were diverted into the acquisition of assets, whether movable or immovable, are proceeds of crime and efforts are on to trace and attach them,” the source said.

The ED has also begun tracing overseas assets owned by HDIL Group since 2008.