Mumbai: The Enforcement Directorate has taken the custody of ABIL group chairman Avinash Bhosale in connection with an alleged money laundering case, an official said on Tuesday.
The Pune-based businessman had earlier been arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in connection with an alleged corruption case involving Yes Bank founder Rana Kapoor and Kapil Wadhawan of the DHFL.
He was subsequently lodged at the Arthur Road prison in Mumbai.
On Monday evening, officials of the ED took Bhosale's custody from the prison, the official said.
He will be produced before a court later in the day, sources said.
The CBI probe in the Yes Bank-DHFL bank fraud case had brought under the scanner the role of Pune-based auto driver-turned-real estate baron Avinash Bhosale, who as a middleman allegedly received kickbacks of over Rs 360 crore from another real estate developer for facilitating loans from the DHFL, which turned into non performing assets, officials earlier said.
The CBI had stumbled upon two payments of over Rs 68.8 crore and Rs 292 crore to Bhosale's companies made by Radius Developers, whose owner Sanjay Chhabaria was recently arrested in the case, they had said.
The case against Bhosale
According to the CBI, which has been probing the case since 2020, Yes Bank — then headed by Rana Kapoor — sanctioned loans to DHFL in 2020 allegedly in exchange for kickbacks.
DHFL promoters, the Wadhawans, allegedly siphoned off the funds, routing them through developers in Mumbai and Pune before ultimately defaulting on the loan payments owed to Yes Bank.
According to the CBI, part of the money disbursed to DHFL by Yes Bank was parked with ABIL and Radius Group and was then routed back to DHFL through a web of shell companies. There is no direct connection between ABIL and Radius group, but both are connected to DHFL, the sources said.
As part of its probe into DHFL’s financials, the CBI also conducted raids at several locations linked to Avinash Bhosale and other developers in Mumbai and Pune in April this year.
Bhosale and his son were also questioned by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) last year. The agency had initially attached assets worth Rs 40.34 crore owned by him for alleged violations of the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) before attaching more assets worth Rs 4 crore owned by him under relevant provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
(with inputs from PTI)
