A probe by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) into the financial records of Dewan Housing Finance Limited (DHFL) have raised suspicions that an amount of Rs 12,773 crore was siphoned out from the company, part of which was used to make payments to the late gangster Iqbal Mirchi.
“The enquiry has revealed that an amount of Rs 12, 773 crore has actually been siphoned out from DHFL by fraudulently claiming them as loans to 1 lakh fictitious individual customers using 79 paper companies,” an agency source told Moneycontrol.
“A part of this loan was used to make payments to Mirchi,” the source said.
The ED, on January 29, conducted searches on a few premises linked to DHFL where it recovered certain “digital” data that would throw further light on the alleged financial irregularities.
A Special Court of the Prevention of Money laundering Act (PMLA) also extended the custody of DHFL's promoter Kapil Wadhawan for two more days. The ED arrested Kapil Wadhawan on January 27.
The ED is also examining the financial records of five shell firms under DHFL. In the last two days, the ED has confronted the officials of these five shell firms, whose loan liabilities were appropriated in the books of the private firm Sunblink. The company bought three Worli –based assets of late narcotics trafficker Iqbal Mirchi in 2010. Sunblink was allegedly under the control DHFL’s promoter Kapil Wadhawan, and Dheeraj Wadhawan, a non-executive director of DHFL who was also named in chargesheet which was filed last month.
The ED probe revealed that DHFL allegedly diverted Rs 2, 186 crore through these five shell firms through loans by illegal means, and that a part of the diverted money was used for paying Mirchi for the three Worli-based properties under his name in 2010.
"The value of these properties, as per the account books, was shown to be Rs 111 crore, even though a payment of more than Rs 150 crore was made to Mirchi in Dubai via hawala channels," the source said.
According to the source, the alleged payments through hawala are not reflected in the balance sheet. The ED is further verifying if DHFL allegedly channeled Rs 2, 186 crore to the five shell firms — Faith Realtors, Marvel Township, Able Realty, Poseidon Realty, and Random Realtors — by handing out loans to these shell companies. The companies were eventually amalgamated in Sunblink Real Estate, the firm that bought Mirchi’s assets.
The ED accused the Wadhawans of purchasing shares of the five firms after which they got amalgamated in Sunblink. The outstanding loans of these five firms, which were around Rs 2, 186 crore till July 2019, allegedly got appropriated onto the books of Sunblink in order to cover the diversions of loans acquired from DHFL.
