CBI seizes Rs 40 crore paintings from houses of Wadhawan brothers

“During investigation, it was found that the promoters had allegedly diverted the funds and made investments in various entities. It was also alleged that the promoters had acquired expensive paintings and sculptures worth about Rs 55 crore using the diverted funds,” CBI said.

The searches were conducted on the premises of Rebecca Dewan and Ajay Ramesh Nawandar in Mumbai and Dewan Villa, Mahabaleshwar, which led to recovery of large number of paintings and sculptures, some cash and other incriminating documents, the CBI claimed.

CBI sources said both are close aides of Wadhawans.

“The value of these artworks is estimated to be around Rs 40 crore, as per initial estimates,” it said.

Last month, the CBI had booked 13 persons, including Wadhawans, for defrauding a consortium of 17 banks of over Rs 34,000 crore, making it the biggest-ever loan fraud in the country. Until now, the Nirav Modi-led PNB loan fraud (13,000 crore) and ABG Shipyard loan fraud (Rs 20,000 crore) were considered to be the biggest.

The CBI case has been registered on a complaint from the Union Bank of India (UBI), which is the lead bank in the consortium. According to UBI complaint, since 2010, DHFL was extended credit facilities of over Rs 42,000 crore by the consortium of which Rs 34,615 crore remain outstanding. The loan was declared NPA in 2019 and fraud in 2020.

A forensic audit conducted by KPMG in 2020-21 of DHFL loan accounts observed that “large amounts were disbursed as loans & advances by the borrower company to a number of inter-connected entities and individuals with commonalities to DHFL Promoter Entities, which were used for purchase of shares/debentures”, the UBI complaint has said elaborating on the fraud.

According to the KPMG report, most of the transactions of such entities/individuals were in the nature of investments in land/properties.

Apart from Wadhwans, the CBI has booked Sudhakar Shetty of Suhana Group and 10 other real estate companies.

UBI has alleged that the KPMG audit indicates “significant financial irregularities, diversion of funds through related parties, fabrication of books to show fraudulent nonexistent retail loans, round tripping of funds and utilisation of diverted amounts for creation of assets by Kapil Wadhawan, Dheeraj Rajesh Kumar Wadhawan and their associates”.

According to the KPMG reports, as many as 66 entities, which were related to DHFL and the Wadhawans were advanced loans to tune of nearly Rs 30,000 crore by flouting all norms.

Of these 65 entities, Kapil Wadhawan alone controlled about 40 by way of appointing directors and auditors, handling income tax notices, maintaining secretarial records of these entities and managing overall control over finances of these companies, the CBI FIR has alleged.

DHFL defaulted on its debt payment obligations from May 2019 onwards.