The Enforcement Directorate on Thursday arrested Dewan Housing Finance Limited’s promoters Kapil and Dheeraj Wadhawan in connection with their involvement in the Yes Bank fraud case, PTI reported. A special court has granted Enforcement Directorate their custody for 10 days.
The Enforcement Directorate sought their custody saying that they wanted to investigate the Wadhawans’ links in connection with its ongoing money laundering probe into Yes Bank co-founder Rana Kapoor and others.
The Wadhawan brothers were arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation last week under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, and are currently lodged in Taloja jail. They had earlier sought interim bail citing the rising number of coronavirus cases inside jails, but it was rejected.
They are also being investigated in another case linked to gangster Iqbal Mirchi. In April, five of their vehicles were seized after they travelled to Mahabaleshwar from Lonavala during the lockdown without an authorised licence.
On March 9, the Central Bureau of Investigation issued a lookout notice against Rana Kapoor and his family. The agency also issued lookout circulars against the Wadhawans after the CBI conducted raids in seven locations linked to the Kapoor family in Mumbai.
According to the CBI case, Yes Bank invested around Rs 3,700 crore in DHFL around the same time it granted a Rs 600-crore loan to a company called DoIT Urban Ventures Private Limited, owned by Rana Kapoor’s three daughters – Roshni Kapoor, Rakhee Kapoor Tandon, and Radha Kapoor. The CBI has alleged that Rana Kapoor, in criminal conspiracy with Kapil Wadhawan and others, had invested in DHFL through Yes Bank to gain undue benefits for himself and his family.
Roshni Kapoor was stopped by Enforcement Directorate officials at the Mumbai airport in March.
The Reserve Bank of India had in March taken control of Yes Bank, after the lender – which is laden with bad debts – failed to raise the capital it needs to stay above mandated regulatory requirements. Placing Yes Bank under a 30-day moratorium, the central bank had imposed a limit of Rs 50,000 on withdrawals to protect depositors.
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