The Enforcement Directorate on Wednesday attached assets worth Rs 415 crore of Maharashtra builders Sanjay Chhabria and Avinash Bhosale in the Yes Bank-Dewan Housing Finance Limited money laundering case, a statement said.
Under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, Chhabria’s assets worth Rs 251 crore and Bhosale’s properties valued Rs 164 crore have been attached by the central agency.
The attached assets of Chhabria are in the form of a land parcel worth Rs 116.5 crore located in Mumbai’s Santacruz area, 25% equity shares of his company held in a land parcel in Bengaluru worth Rs 115 crore, a flat in Santacruz worth Rs 3 crore, profits of Rs 13.67 crore from a hotel that belongs to him and is located at Delhi airport along with three luxury cars worth Rs 3.10 crore.
The attached assets of Bhosale include a duplex flat in Mumbai worth Rs 102.8 crore, one land parcel in Pune worth Rs 14.65 crore, another land parcel in Pune worth Rs 29.24 crore, a land parcel in Nagpur worth Rs 15.52 crore and another portion of land in Nagpur of Rs 1.45 crore, the Enforcement Directorate said.
Both the builders were arrested by the Enforcement Directorate in June and are currently in judicial custody.
The case
The Enforcement Directorate and the Central Bureau of Investigation have booked Chhabria, Bhosale, Yes Bank co-founder Rana Kapoor and former promoters of the Dewan Housing Finance Limited Kapil Wadhawan and Dheeraj Wadhawan in their separate complaints, PTI reported.
The Enforcement Directorate had arrested Kapoor on March 8, 2020, for allegedly conspiring with Dewan Housing Finance Limited promoters and siphoning off funds worth Rs 5,050 crore from Yes Bank through “suspicious transactions”.
Yes Bank had bought debentures worth Rs 3,700 crore between April 2018 and June 2018 from Dewan Housing Finance Corporation, the Enforcement Directorate said. The bank had used public money for this.
A debenture is a type of investment issued by a business to raise money for its activities. It is accounted for as debt.
Around the same time, Dewan Housing Finance Corporation granted a Rs 600-crore loan to a company named DoIT Urban Ventures Private Limited, which is owned by Kapoor’s three daughters.
Like Kapoor, the Wadhawans are also currently in jail.
“Investigation further reveals that immediately after said transfer of funds to the tune of Rs 3,983 crore by Yes Bank to DHFL appraised and sanctioned loans to Radius Group of Sanjay Chhabria and received funds to the tune of Rs 2,317 crore as loan from DHFL in the name of development of his project ‘Avenue 54’ at Santacruz, Mumbai,” the Enforcement Directorate said on Wednesday. “And then Sanjay Chhabria diverted the same without using it for the declared purpose.”
The funds were later transferred by Chhabria to Bhosale, the agency added.
“Apart from this, Avinash Bhosale had connived with Kapil Wadhawan and received approximately Rs 71.82 crore from DHFL in the garb of providing certain services to DHFL and other entities,” it said. “However, the said so-called services have never been provided and same was utilised by Avinash Bhosale for his benefit.”
Earlier, the agency had attached properties worth Rs 1,412 crore of Wadhawans and properties worth Rs 600 crore of Kapoor in connection with this case.
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