Mumbai: Even as the entire state is trying its best to enforce a social lockdown and rigorous social distancing norms, the high and mighty Wadhawans, the promoters of DHFL, along with 21 others, cut through the police barriers for a sojourn in Mahabaleswar.
There were no less than five cars in the cavalcade, the occupants being mostly members of the family, some of whom are allegedly embroiled in a massive money laundering scam.
The Wadhawans are co-accused in a cheating and money laundering case registered against Yes Bank co-founder Rana Kapoor. The Enforcement Directorate is investigating loans offered by Yes Bank to DHFL, which has been booked for siphoning funds close to Rs 13000 crores allegedly through 80 shell companies.
Told to appear before the ED recently in a money laundering case, the Wadhawans had taken refuge in the coronavirus pandemic to evade the summons from the investigating agency; but the raging pandemic did not prevent them from gallivanting across the country.
“We received information that 23 people connected to the Wadhawans, including members of their family, had arrived in Mahabaleshwar. We immediately moved them and placed them under institutional quarantine at Panchgani Hospital. An FIR is being filed against them under Section 188 of the IPC (Disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant),” Superintendent of Police, Satara, Tejaswi Satpute, told The Free Press Journal.
Sources confirmed that both Kapil and Dheeraj Wadhawan were among the 23 persons in the group.
Asked how the group managed to travel past police checkpoints set up across the state and whether they were in possession of an emergency pass, Satpute said, “That is a matter of investigation for us. They managed to travel through Mumbai, Raigad, Pune-City and Pune-Rural before entering Satara. Our investigations are on to ascertain how they managed to do so.”
Most embarrassing, however, is the revelation by Times Now TV channel that the ‘great escape’ to the hill station was facilitated by a senior bureaucrat in the State Home Department. The TV channel claims to have in its possession an incriminating letter on the letter head of the bureaucrat instructing the police to give the Wadhawans safe passage in view of a ‘family emergency.’
