Mumbai: With their 15 days of quarantine ending today at 2 pm, Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh has urged the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to take custody of DHFL Group’s Kapil Wadhawan and Dheeraj Wadhawan. After the duo and 21 others, including their family members, violated the enforced lockdown and travelled to Mahabaleshwar, they were quarantined by the Satara district administration.
Deshmukh has informed CBI and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) about the matter. In a Facebook message, he said that till CBI takes custody of the duo, they will remain in state policy custody. He made it clear that there was no question of shielding them, neither was there any chance of them leaving the country for London (referring to the manner in which Vijay Mallya and Nirav Modi left pending inquiry).
He admitted that permitting the two brothers and their family members to travel from Khandala to Mahabaleshwar was a mistake of a senior police officer, who has been sent on compulsory leave. The minister hinted that the ball now is clearly in the CBI’s and ED’s court for further action.
The two brothers are named as accused in CBI's FIR pertaining to the alleged swindling of money by Yes Bank promoter Rana Kapoor and others. Kapil Wadhawan, the 46-year-old chairman and managing director of Dewan Housing Finance Limited (DHFL), was arrested on January 27 this year by the ED for his dubious dealings with gangster Iqbal, who died in 2013, and was booked under provisions of Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
He was granted bail on February 21 by a special PMLA court in Mumbai.
The Wadhawan brothers were absconding since the case was registered against them in the first week of March. Thereafter, CBI had issued a non-bailable warrant against them from a special court.
