The Former Director of Dewan Housing Finance Limited (DHFL) Dheeraj Wadhawan, was arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in connection with the Rs 34,000 Cr (approximately $4.3 billion) banking loan fraud case.
He was taken into custody from Mumbai on the evening of 13th May. He was produced before a special court in Delhi on 14 May 2024 that remanded him to judicial custody. The Delhi High Court issued notice to the CBI following a plea by Dheeraj Wadhawan seeking bail on medical grounds. He is currently under medical treatment at his residence in Mumbai after having spinal surgery. The court has scheduled the case for hearing on Friday, May 17th.
The CBI had registered the DHFL case in 2019 related to the alleged defrauding of a consortium of 17 banks to the tune of Rs 34,000 crore, making it the biggest banking loan fraud in the country.
DHFL’s former promoter and his brother, Kapil Wadhawan, were earlier arrested in the case on July 19, 2022, officials said.
Who is Dheeraj Wadhawan?
Dheeraj Wadhawan is a well-known businessman, investor, and entrepreneur from India who was the director and promoter of “Deewan Housing Finance Corporation Limited” (DHFL), the biggest financing company in India.
The DHFL CASE
An Article by Cobrapost (an Indian investigative journalist group) on 29 January 2019 exposed the financial scam tuning to more than ₹ 31,000 crores.
Cobrapost exposed the DHFL of various shell corporations to siphon off public money for the personal gains of the DHFL’s primary stakeholders: Kapil Wadhawan, Aruna Wadhawan, and Dheeraj Wadhawan. According to the allegations, The scam has primarily been pulled off through grants of loans and advances to shell companies and by using other means. The company was raised allegations of political donations worth crores of rupees, in violation of Section 182 of the Companies Act, 2013 for political donations.
In 2019, Dheeraj Wadhwan’s brother Kapil Wadhawan was arrested in connection to DHFL’s alleged involvement in providing loans to the organized criminal enterprise of Dawood Ibrahim. After a month, the court granted him bail, rejecting the (ED) Enforcement Directorate’s requests to stay the bail application.
The ED has linked Yes Bank for various fraud and transactions amounting to 3700 crores as debentures in DHFL.
In 2021, CBI filed a new suit against DHFL and its promoters Kapil Wadhawan and Dheeraj Wadhawan. According to the allegations, Dheeraj Wadhawan was accused of siphoning off the welfare subsidy fund of Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana by creating 260,000 fake home loan accounts under the same scheme under the guise of a non-existent branch. He was alleged to grant Fake loans worth ₹14,046 crore of which ₹11,755.79 crore were routed to shell corporations.
According to officials, DHFL loan accounts were categorized as non-performing assets by various lender banks at different intervals.
