Dewan Housing chairman Wadhawan gets bail in Mirchi case
- Country:
- India
A special court here on Friday granted bail to Kapil Wadhawan, chairman and MD of Dewan
Housing Finance (DHFL) who is accused of having dealings with dead gangster Iqbal Mirchi in the past.
The ED moved Bombay High Court seeking a stay on the special court's order but withdrew the petition when told that
Wadhawan had already been released from jail. Kapil Wadhawan (46) was arrested on January 27 by the
Enforcement Directorate under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
While granting bail, the court directed Wadhawan to be at the ED office whenever he is summoned.
He shall not tamper with prosecution evidence and shall not directly or indirectly make any inducement, threat
or promise to any person acquainted with the facts of the case, the court said.
It directed him to not go out of the country and ordered him to surrender his passport.
Within hours of the special court granting him bail, the ED approached Bombay High Court and sought a stay on the
order. The appeal was taken up for hearing in the evening by
Justice Prithviraj Chavan. The court was, however, informed that Kapil Wadhawan was already released from the Arthur Road
prison. The ED then withdrew its petition as it had become
infructuous. Claiming he had no connection with the transaction of
Mirchi's properties, Kapil Wadhawan had moved a bail plea before special PMLA court judge P Rajvaidya earlier this
month. While arguing for his bail, defence lawyer Amit Desai
submitted that the transaction of DHFL, which the ED has cited for Kapil Wadhawan's arrest, has nothing to do with dealings
of Mirchi. During arguments, the ED had opposed the bail plea on
several grounds, including that Kapil Wadhawan may influence the probe.
According to the ED, Kapil Wadhawan was instrumental in laundering of huge amounts of money as part of an illegal
deal with Mirchi. A sum of Rs 12,773 crore was siphoned off from DHFL on
the pretext of providing loans to one lakh fictitious customers, the ED said.
A part of this loan was used to make payments to Mirchi, who died in 2013 in London, it said.
Mirchi's Mumbai properties were sold to Sunblink Real Estate Pvt Ltd, a company linked to the Wadhawan brothers,
Kapil and Dheeraj, the central agency has said. The agency has alleged Kapil Wadhawan "diverted" funds
from DHFL to shell companies and later these dubious entities got amalgamated with Sunblink to "cover" alleged diversion of
loans acquired from the housing finance firm. Mirchi was allegedly the right hand man of global
terrorist Dawood Ibrahim in the latter's drug trafficking and extortion businesses.
(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
ALSO READ
Prithviraj Chavan named chief of Congress' campaign committee in Maharashtra
ED misused its power under Prevention of Money Laundering Act to unleash political vendetta: Delhi CM Kejriwal's lawyer to court.
"Arrest made to stop Kejriwal from campaigning": Congress' Prithviraj Chavan on Delhi CM arrest