Mumbai: Housing Development and Infrastructure Ltd (HDIL) promoters Rakesh and Sarang Wadhwan were remanded in judicial custody for 14 days by a special court on Thursday in connection with a money laundering probe.
The father-son duo, who had earlier been arrested by the Mumbai police’s Economic Offences Wing (EOW) in connection with the Rs 4,355 crore scam in the Punjab and Maharashtra Co-operative (PMC) Bank, was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on October 18 under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
The ED had initiated a probe subsequent to the FIR filed by the Mumbai police and seized the duo’s property on October 18. Before seeking their arrest, the agency had carried out searches and seizures at the residential premises of the Wadhwans and those of HDIL and its affiliate concerns.
By the last count, ED had seized movable and immovable properties of the Wadhwans worth over Rs 4,000 crore that included farmhouses in Alibaug and Vasai, a couple of private jets, a luxury yacht, a dozen of luxury vehicles, three bungalows and several flats in upscale areas of Mumbai, several thousands of acres of land across three to four states and jewellery worth over Rs 66 crore.
ED suspected that the Wadhwans had amassed the property by routing the borrowed money from PMC Bank, which invited invocation of the anti-money laundering law. They were probed for the same during their custodial interrogation, sources said.
Last month, EOW had taken the Wadhwans’ custody after charging them of cheating, forgery, falsification of documents and criminal conspiracy in the FIR which was lodged in connection with the PMC bank scam.
The Mumbai police too had seized their immovable properties worth over Rs 3,500 crore which had been mortgaged in the bank against their borrowals. Attempts are being made to auction those collaterals in order to infuse liquidity into the cash-strapped bank.
