India's elite Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has booked Mumbai-based HDIL's (Housing Development and Infrastructure Limited) promoters Rakesh Wadhawan and Sarang Wadhawan in a new bank fraud case involving an amount of Rs 140 crore (£14.2 million) pertaining to their subsidiary Guruashish Construction, officials said on Thursday (5).
The fresh action was initiated on a complaint from the Union Bank of India against the businessmen who are embroiled in a Rs 4,300-crore (£436.6 million) Punjab and Maharashtra Cooperative (PMC) Bank scam case, they said.
The bank has alleged that Guruashish Construction was a wholly-owned subsidiary of Housing Development and Infrastructure Limited (HDIL) engaged in the real estate business in Mumbai.
The Wadhawans were booked by the CBI in October 2020 in connection with a Rs 200 crore (£20.3 million) alleged loan fraud from Yes Bank and have been facing investigation by multiple agencies.
They are also being probed by the Enforcement Directorate as part of another Prevention of Money Laundering Act case related to an alleged loan fraud at the PMC Bank involving an amount of more than Rs 4,300 crore.
The officials said the firm had allegedly entered into a Rs 3,167-crore (£321.5 million) development contract with the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority for the development of 40 acres of land in Mumbai's Goregaon (West) in five phases.
The first phase of the project was scheduled to be completed by December 2017 for Rs 1,022 crore (£103.7 million), for which a Rs 200 crore loan was sanctioned in 2010 and disbursed the following year, they said.
The officials said the account was declared a non-performing asset in 2014 due to the non-servicing principal and interest. The forensic audit found a diversion of Rs 100 crore (£10.1 million) to parent company HDIL but no invoices or supporting documents justifying the transfer were kept on record.
The company was "non-cooperative" in disclosing its account books, it said. It was also alleged that the company gave misleading information about the total cost of the project and timelines for its completion while seeking loans.
The bank alleged that the Wadhawans "cheated" it "with a dishonest intention to make a wrongful gain for themselves and cause wrongful loss to the bank by fraudulent means, taking an undue advantage of the trust of the bank in its customers".
The bank alleged that the Wadhawans entered into a criminal conspiracy with each other, wherein the disbursed amount from banks was diverted to various related companies.
(PTI)
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