DHFL's ex-CMD, director held in Rs. 34,615-cr bank fraud

New Delhi: The CBI has booked Dewan Housing Finance Ltd, its former CMD Kapil Wadhawan, director Dheeraj Wadhawan and others in a fresh case involving Rs34,615 crore, making it the biggest bank fraud probed by the agency, officials said Wednesday.

Following the registration of case, a team of over 50 officials from the agency carried out coordinated searches in Mumbai at 12 locations belonging to listed accused in the FIR which also includes Sudhakar Shetty of Amaryllis Realtors and eight other builders. The bank has alleged that the company had availed credit facility to the tune of Rs42,871 crore between 2010 and 2018 from the consortium under various arrangements, but started defaulting on commitments of repayment from May 2019, onwards, the officials said.

The accounts were declared non-performing assets (NPAs) at different points of time by lender banks, they said. When DHFL was hit by investigation in January 2019 after media reports on allegations of fraud by diversion of funds, round tripping and siphoning of funds surfaced, the lenders held a meeting on February 1, 2019.

The members appointed KPMG to conduct a special review audit of DHFL from April 1, 2015, to December 31, 2018. The banks moved to get a Look Out Cirular issued against Kapil and Dheeraj Wadhawan on October 18, 2019, to prevent them from leaving the country, they said.