Dewan Housing chairman Wadhawan gets bail in Mirchi case


PTI | Mumbai | Updated: 21-02-2020 19:55 IST | Created: 21-02-2020 19:55 IST
Dewan Housing chairman Wadhawan gets bail in Mirchi case
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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.)

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