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The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Tuesday said it has attached assets worth Rs 578 crore of a UK-based company owned by former DHFL promoters Kapil Wadhawan and his brother Dheeraj in connection with the UPPCL money laundering probe against them and others.
The attached properties “are in the form of investment made by the Wadhawans through WGC-UK in United Kingdom-based companies” and a provisional order has been issued under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
The value of the assets GBP 57 million or Rs 578 crore, it said in a statement.
The Wadhawan siblings are at present in jail in connection with the Yes Bank alleged loan fraud money laundering case.
The latest ED case against the Wadhawans is based on an FIR filed by Lucknow Police against some officials of Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation Ltd (UPPCL) for “illegal investment” of general provident fund (GPF) and central provident fund (CPF) of the employees of the power company into Dewan Housing Finance Limited (DHFL) “in violation” of the government notification and directives.
“DHFL in connivance with UPPCL officials had illegally received Rs 4,122.70 crore of GPF and CPF funds of UPPCL’s employees in fixed deposit in DHFL.”
“Out of this total investment, Rs 2,267.90 crore of principal amount of provident fund (GPF+CPF) of UPPCL is still outstanding to be paid by DHFL,” the ED claimed.
These “illegal investments” had been received by the DHFL during the period when DHFL was engaged into disbursement of high-value loans to its promoter related companies.
“All such unsecured loans had been sanctioned as per the directions of the chairman of DHFL, Kapil Wadhawan and many of such loans have turned into NPA,” the agency alleged.
Many of these loans, it said, have been siphoned off without utilising them for the purpose they were sanctioned for.
“The proceeds of crime, amounting to more than Rs 1,000 crore, generated in this case has been siphoned off to UK by the Wadhawans by seven levels of layering and laundering through more than 30 beneficially owned /controlled Indian companies,” it said.
Th agency had earlier attached properties worth Rs 1,412 crore of the Wadhawans in connection with a separate money laundering case investigation being conducted against them in the Yes Bank alleged loan fraud case.
It had also seized 5 SUVs, valued at Rs 12.59 crore, owned by them in the Yes Bank case.
